The months-long wait for a new passport will soon be over with online police verification system being launched across the state soon.

The online passport police verification system, known as district police headquarters model (DPHM), is going to be operational in 13 districts — Gaya, Jamui, Rohtas, Vaishali, Sheohar, Saharsa, Kaimur, Buxar, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Sheikhpura, Munger and Supaul — by end of November.

Regional passport officer (RPO) Anand Kumar said: “All the 38 districts will have the system of online police verification.”

At present, the online police verification system is running smoothly in 25 districts, including Patna, Bhagalpur, Aurangabad, Nalanda among others.

The online police verification will reduce the transit time in delivery of passport.

Kumar added: “The manual police verification system usually takes 40 to 50 days in completing police verification but after the introduction of online police verification system, the transit time has been reduced to 15 to 20 days.” Similarly, the delivery of passport has been reduced to just one month to 45 days.

For making the system more effective, the regional passport office has assigned the job of online police verification system to two deputy superintendent of police-rank officers in each district.

These two officers have been assigned the authority of personal particulars form (digital signature) and they send the passport application to the RPO online after verifying details.

Under the personal particulars form, the application is sent via email to respective superintendent of police’s office for verification.

A senior police officer of the district concerned gives his or her recommendation online.

It has come as a boon for the common people. Ramadhar Sahu, a resident of Vaishali district who was spotted at the RPO’s office querying his passport application status, said: “It is good that online passport police verification is going to be introduced in all 38 districts. The new system will not only ease our problem but also we will receive passports much before the manual system.”

With the introduction of online passport application and online passport police verification, the RPO is receiving more applicants than previous years.

RPO Kumar said: “The success of online passport application system, which was introduced in February last year, and online passport police verification, introduced in June this year, the delivery time of passport has not only come down but also more passports have been issued till date as compared to previous year.”

By end-December last year, around 1.33 lakh passports were issued but this year by October-end around 1.39 lakh passports have been distributed with almost two months still remaining.

The passport officer further claimed that to entertain the huge number of passport applicants, the regional passport office has decided to start passport mela under which around 1,200 additional online passports would be accepted. This month, the passport mela is scheduled on November 30.