Tatkal slots to be increased at Mundhwa passport office

PUNE: Getting a Tatkal appointment for passports is set to get easier with the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in Mundhwa ready to offer 135 daily slots against the existing 110 slots starting September 22.
From September 29, the number will be increased further to 160, a 45% increase over the current number of Tatkal appointments. With this, Pune will rank among the top cities in the country in terms of number of passports being processed under the Tatkal category.
The announcement made by regional passport officer Atul Gotsurve on Friday comes in the backdrop of repeated complaints about non-availability of appointment slots in the Tatkal category.
The move will benefits applicants from all districts under the jurisdiction of the Regional Passport Office (RPO), namely Pune, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar and Satara.
Gotsurve said, "The increase in Tatkal appointments is a result of our efforts to streamline the operations. We have increased manpower at the Mundhwa PSK by adding more granting and verifying officers which has allowed us more hands to process applications."
Gotsurve said that a number of passport camps organized by the RPO in the last couple of months has also helped reduce the demand for Tatkal appointments.
"As a result, Tatkal slots remain open for more than 45 minutes now, which used to earlier get filled within a few minutes of being released at noon. We hope the increase in the number of slots will further take care of the shortage, if any," he said.
Modifications in the application process, including allowing on-hold applicants to return with necessary documentation within a fixed timeframe without taking a fresh appointment has further reduced the load on the appointment diary of the PSK.
"Pune's ratio of normal versus Tatkal appointments has always been very high, and the increase in number the of Tatkal slots will increase it further," Gotsurve added.
With the increase in number of appointments, the PSK in Mundhwa will have the capacity to handle more than 1200 applications every day, including those of walk-in and on-hold applicants.