19 new Post Office Passport Seva Kendras announced

New Delhi March 16 (IANS) The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DoP) on Thursday decided to open another 19 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) in four states an official said.

Out of the 19 POPSKs of the third batch Goa will get one Punjab and Uttarakhand will have three each and the rest 12 will go to Uttar Pradesh.

Ten POPSKs in Asansol (West Bengal) Kavaratti (Lakshadweep) Kota (Rajasthan) Muzaffarpur (Bihar) Pathanamthitta (Kerala) Raiganj (West Bengal) Rourkela (Odisha) Salem (Tamil Nadu) Udhampur (Jammu & Kashmir) and Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh) are already operational taking the total number of POPSKs in the country to 12.

Following the successful functioning of these 12 POPSK the MEA and the DoP have now decided to open another 19 POPSKs Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

MEA and DoP are working closely for early commencement of passport-related services at the remaining 73 POPSK Baglay added.

The pilot projects for this joint venture between the two were inaugurated on January 25 in Mysuru in Karnataka and at Dahod in Gujarat.

Following the success of these pilot projects the MEA and the DoP announced 56 POPSKs (in the first batch of expansion) and eight in the second batch announced in February in the various States of the country.

The total number of the planned POPSKs has now reached 85.

--IANS
rs/nir