Dr L. Murugan, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, will cut the ribbon on 16 July at Periyar Nagar’s Sub-Post Office, inaugurating the 14th Post-Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) under the Chennai Regional Passport Office. The milestone means every Lok Sabha constituency in the region now hosts either a full Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or a POPSK, fulfilling the MEA’s service-access pledge made in 2017. According to the PIB press note issued yesterday evening, the Periyar Nagar facility will start with 40 appointments a day and ramp to 90 once staffing stabilises. Applicants can already book slots via the Passport Seva Portal or the mobile app, avoiding the two-hour commute many North Chennai residents previously endured to reach the Royala Nagar PSK. The POPSK model, jointly run by the Department of Posts and MEA, leverages postal real estate and biometric kits to deliver passport enrolment at a fraction of the cost of purpose-built centres. Nationwide, 578 POPSKs handle about 40 % of India’s 13 million annual passport applications—a figure expected to rise as smaller towns come online. For HR teams this translates into faster onboarding of new hires who need passports for training stints abroad, and shorter lead times when mobilising technicians for last-minute overseas projects. Travel managers in Chennai’s manufacturing belt say a three-day passport turnaround is now achievable, down from the week-plus norm earlier this decade. Applicants are reminded that supporting documents must be uploaded in advance through ‘DIGI-LOCKER Sync’ to qualify for the Tatkaal (expedited) window. The new centre will process both normal and Tatkaal files, and will accept digital e-Matrimonial certificates issued by Tamil Nadu’s e-Registry from August.
Source: Press Information Bureau
