July 15: Calcutta's second passport processing centre was inaugurated at the Beadon Street post office today. Eight more centres, including one in Barrackpore, will soon come up, officials said.

Processing passport applications in a post office is a collaborative effort between India Post and the external affairs ministry.

Junior external affairs minister M.J. Akbar, who inaugurated the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK), said the aim was to have passport processing centres every 50km.

A portion has been created within the post office for the centre to function.

Akbar inaugurated a POPSK at Nadia's Krishnagar through videoconference from the Beadon Street post office.

"Getting a passport was a laborious process... but a passport is a right of the people. We are trying to convert the process to obtain a passport from a privilege of the upper classes to a privilege of even the poor," he said.

There's a proposal to create eight more POPSKs in Bengal, an official said. The proposed locations are in Barrackpore, Malda, Burdwan, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Bankura, Purulia, Port Blair, and Midnapore town.

Work on the centres at Barrackpore, Burdwan, Malda, and Darjeeling has progressed. But an exact date when the centres would be ready can't be said, he said.

The Beadon Street centre is expected to process 40 applications every day.

Earlier this year, such centres were inaugurated in Asansol and Raiganj.

The Asansol centre issues about 1,000 passports a month and the Raiganj centre more than 500.