TN likely to have 11 more Post Office Passport Seva Kendras

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu is likely to have 11 more additional Post Office Passport Seva Kendras in the second phase for delivery of passports to the citizens.

R Anand, postmaster general of Chennai City Region told Express that presently post offices in Vellore and Salem are processing the passport and efforts are on to add more post offices which can provide passport related services.

It is learnt from sources that the Centre is planning to open Post Office Passport Seva Kendras in the state in 11 places under the second phase. They include Cuddalore, Dindigul, Namakkal, Perambalur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Tiruppur, Viluppuram, Virudhunagar and Kanyakumari.

This is aimed at making the passport issuance process hassle-free and ease burden on passport offices across the country which are grappling with large volume of applications, said Anand.

Interestingly, Post offices in the state are not only offering passport services but also offering services pertaining to Aadhaar cards. “We are offering Aadhaar updation at post offices. If someone has an issue pertaining to correction in name or address, they can walk to the nearest post office and get it done,” said Anand.

He said that it is roughly estimated that more than three lakh people across the country want their Aadhaar card to be updated and this could go to six lakh shortly. “We are planning to provide the service in all the post offices in Chennai region, which also includes Puducherry and Northern Tamil Nadu. Currently, 10 post offices in Chennai region are providing the services,” he said.

During the last one and a half month, around 5,600 Aadhaars were updated, said Anand.

He also said that efforts are on to integrate  post offices in the Chennai region with the rest in India under the Core Banking Solutions by December end. "We will be integrating 534 of the 568 post offices in the region as 34 of the post offices are not technically feasible,” he said.

Factfile:

1. Chennai Region of India Post has 23 lakh postal accounts, including 10.84 lakh saving accounts, 2.4 lakh Sukanya Samriddhi Account, Public Provident Fund account and Senior Citizens Savings Account

2. Tamil Nadu has 97 India Post ATMs of which 21 are located in North Tamil Nadu. This include 10 in Chennai alone

3. India Post ATMs offer five free transactions a day which is highest when compared to other bank ATMs