Indian missions across the world will soon issue passports in less than 48 hours to citizens abroad, minister of state for external affairs V.K. Singh said in Wwashington.
Addressing a gathering after launching the Passport Seva project at the Indian embassy on Saturday, he said the passport offices at Indian missions have been digitally linked with the data centre back home, which would speed up the process of issuing passports.
Earlier this week, the Indian mission in New York issued passports in less than 48 hours. 'This is going to happen across the world,' Singh said, handing over passports issued under the new project to citizens abroad.
After the UK and the US, the project would be extended to all the Indian missions across the globe, Singh said.
Navtej Singh Sarna, the Indian ambassador to the US, who was present at the launch, said: 'This is actually going to quantitatively and qualitatively improve our passport services immensely, both in the scope of the applications... and also in the way they will be handled and the way they will be integrated into the overall much better consular services.'
The minister said that in the next few months, the Indian government will issue a new set of passports, the design for which had already been approved. These will have all kinds of security features and better printing and paper quality, Singh said, but there would be 'no change in the colour' of the document.