Passport Seva Kendra. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Passport applicants can entirely bypass touts from next week.

All one needs is to have access to the Net to reach www.passportindia.gov.in for fixing an appointment with the Passport Seva Kendra after depositing requisite fees online.

Regional passport officer Anand Kumar said: “The new system (online payment) for passport applications would be introduced from July 5. We hope it will be of great help to the people in Patna, and Bihar as a whole.”

Apart from making the system more convenient for people, the Passport Seva Kendra will stop such cases, where applicants booked appointments but did not turn up for interviews at the centre.

Anand Kumar said: “Reviewing the operations over past one year after PSK Patna centre come up in February last year, it was observed that several applicants were not turning up at the centre in spite of taking valid appointment slots.”

This not only resulted in less utilisation of processing capacity of the Passport Seva Kendra but also caused denial of appointment slots for others. Giving an instance, Kumar said: “On an average, the Passport Seva Kendra receives 825 appointments daily but only around 510-515 applicants turn up on a particular day.”

With the launch of online payment-based appointments, applicants will be required to make payment at the time of booking an appointment on the website. Sources at Passport Seva Kendra said they hoped only genuine applicants would book an appointment and number of absentees will come down.

Under the process, application fees can be made while booking an appointment on the website — www.passportindia.gov.in — either by credit or debit card or Internet banking of State Bank of India and some other banks. Those who have no credit or debit card can deposit the fees in cash at designated State Bank of India branches after taking a printout of the system-generated challan from the website.

The off-line mode of cash transfer will take two days to fix an available appointment date but the online card payment will enable an applicant get a confirmed date instantly.

During the online filing of application, there is also an option for changing the date of appointment, if an applicant cannot make it to the Passport Seva Kendra. He or she can make a request to the passport officer for re-appointment.

For a 36-page normal passport, an adult has to pay Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 for a 60-page one. The tatkaal charges are, however, quite steep and set at Rs 3,500 for a 36-page passport and Rs 4,000 for 60-page one. While a guardian has to pay Rs 1,000 for a 36-page passport for his/her child, the 60-page one would cost him/her Rs 3,000.