The online payment system for taking appointments has started at passport service centre in Dehradun from June 1 onwards. The centre falls under the jurisdiction of Regional Passport Office, Union Ministry of External Affairs.
It had come to the notice of the authorities that large numbers of applicants were not turning up at the passport service centres despite taking valid appointment. This was resulting in lesser utilisation of processing capacity of the centre and was also causing denial of appointments for other genuine applicants. To resolve the issue of non-availability of appointments and to reduce no shows of applications, Union Ministry of External Affairs has launched an online payment system for booking appointments. Dehradun Regional Passport Officer has been chosen as pilot location to launch the online payment system.
Union Ministry of External Affairs will be gradually rolling out this new system to all passport service centres across the country. The Ministry is focusing on improving Governance in passport offices by focusing on citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency.