TCS will assist the government in the phased opening of 77 passport filing centers across the country for digitized passport services and online filing of applications. A call center will also be established for providing information regarding passport procedures and the status of submitted requests.
After implementation of the project, which will be managed end-to-end by TCS, the Ministry expects the process of issuing a new passport to be completed in three working days, while passports issued under the tatkal scheme will be dispatched on the same day, subject to address and police verifications of applicants.
The project will be implemented within a Buy-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) framework with pilot project operation within 19 months. The countrywide roll-out of the passport automation project will take place within six years and the government will open 77 passport filing centers across the country in a phased manner. TCS will have end-to-end responsibility of implementing this project.
Shivshankar Menon, foreign secretary at Ministry of External Affairs, said: The Passport Seva Project, based on a public-private partnership model, aims to provide passport-related services to Indian citizens in a speedy, convenient, and transparent manner.
TCS believes that after the implementation of the MCA-21 program, the Passport Seva Project will enable citizens the benefits of a technology-led, service oriented approach to passports while ensuring that the proper security, safety and safeguards are maintained.
