Patna: The regional passport office, Patna has been included as one of the best performing passport offices in the country.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj awarded regional passport officer Parveen Mohan Sahai on the occasion of Passport Sewa Diwas in Delhi on June 27.

Out of 37 regional passport offices across the country, six passport offices were awarded for their outstanding performance in 2017-18.

Regional passport officer Sahai said: "Selection of regional passport office Patna as better performing office during 2017-18 is a matter of pride and extreme pleasure for people of Bihar."

The passport officer claimed that in the past few years various initiatives were taken to achieve goals.

He claimed the Patna office had on a priority basis taken various steps to reduce the number of days taken to issue passports, speedily dispose pending cases, expand passport services, decrease time taken for completion of submission of passport application at Passport Seva Kendras as also time for completion of police verification process.

The time taken for completing process of passport application is down from 60 to 35 minutes, which is time counted from issuance of token to exit from the premises. Sahai said: "In 2015, the time period for police verification was 69 days; it was 24 days in May 2018. This has been made due to steps and effort of PSK."

Also, the regional passport office has made notable achievements in average time required to issue passports.

Currently, 3-4 are required for a normal category passport to be dispatched, excluding the period of police verification where Tatkal applications are being dispatched within a day.

Also, on the instructions of the external affairs ministry, 15 Passport Seva Kendras have been opened.

Presently 15 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) are functioning in the state. The POPSKs are functioning at Siwan, Muzaffarpur, Bettiah, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Gaya, Motihari, Buxar, Samsatipur, Nawada, Munger, Chhapra, Madhubani, Begusarai and Nalanda districts.

According to regional passport officer the PSK has taken the initiative in speedy disposal of grievances received from social media and other channels. The office has taken the steps in resolving fastly the grievances being received through twitter, e-mail, by post, RTI and other mediums.