The plot from which encroachers were evicted. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 1: The general administration department today evicted encroachers from the land allotted to the regional passport office for its extension.

In August, the state government had allocated a 9,000sqft land to the existing building of the passport office in its favour for expansion.

Passport officials had requested the general administration department for eviction of encroachers from the site as a house was already being constructed there.

“We got physical possession of the land today. For the time being, the plot will be used for parking of vehicles. Once our expansion plans are finalised and approved, we will start the work,” said regional passport officer Padma Mahanti.

The expansion plan includes construction of a multi-storey building with adequate parking lots, more counters and spacious seating arrangements for the applicants.

The present passport office is a three-storey building having as many as 10 counters for application receiving and grievance redressal.

Though a team of government officials had visited the site earlier, the encroachers had refused to vacate the land.

Absence of a parking lot forces applicants to park their vehicles in front of the entrance of the main building, creating traffic chaos. One can also see applicants waiting outside the office because of a space crunch.

“We are planning to construct a conference hall and a waiting room with a seating capacity of 250 persons so that applicants do not seat outside,” said an official.

The passport office and the Passport Seva Kendra have 100 employees at present. The office receives more than 300 applications on each working day and dispatches as many passports on a daily basis.

The expansion was planned keeping an eye on the proposals of international flight operations at the Biju Patnaik Airport by various airlines.

“The office will become more busy once the domestic airport gets the international status. Several facilities will be introduced in the expanded building,” said another official.