Govt to open 35 more centers in dists to issue passports

Mahmuda Shaolin | Published: May 30, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The government will open 35 more centres in district headquarters to issue passports from June 1 covering the entire country, immigration officials said.

It has already set up 17 such centres at the district commissioner's offices. Each of the district headquarters will have one passport issuing office while Dhaka, Chittagong and Comilla will have two each.

Besides, the government has 15 regional passport offices. With the setting up of the new 35 centres in district headquarters, the total number of passport issuing office will stand at 67.

"The government is setting up 35 more passport issuing offices covering the entire country. This aims to make delivery of passports quicker to the people, especially to those seeking jobs abroad," Abdur Rob Hawlader, director general of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) told the FE Thursday.

He said: "The people will now be able to get their passports from their respective centres located in deputy commissioner (DC) offices from June."

Applications and related documents will be received by the DC's offices, and after the processing is complete passports will be issued by the DIP of the respective district headquarters.

The people seeking to obtain passport will get a hassle-free service from the centres at the district headquarters. "The service is intended to make quicker delivery of passports and help the job seekers save time and money, Hawlader said.

In 2007, the DIP issued nearly 1.7 million passports, posting a record growth of 25 per cent over the previous year.

"Each passport office is now issuing around 10,000 to 11,000 passports everyday and with the expansion of the service to DC offices across the country, we will be able to enhance our capacity roughly by 20 per cent," Hawlader said.

The government earned Tk 6.45 billion through issuance of passports in fiscal 2006-07 and it expects to earn Tk 8.0 billion in the current fiscal.