Post offices start passport processing from tomorrow

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Mahmuda Shaolin
The Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) will start providing passport processing services from tomorrow (Sunday) in the capital to help ease the trouble that the applicants have to undergo to obtain the travel document.
"The government has permanently engaged the post offices to process passports after a pilot project found to have eased hassles for thousands of travelers and job seekers," BPO director general Mobassher ur Rahman told the FE Friday.
At the initial stage, BPO will carry out passport processing job through its 12 offices in the capital city from tomorrow (Sunday) to help urban people to process the passport application at a cost of Tk 200 as service charge, he added.
On September 1 last, the BPO signed an agreement with the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) to carry out the passport processing work across the country.
"The BPO is expected to earn about Tk 200 million a year by providing such services," said the BPO DG.
As per the agreement with DIP, the BPO will start providing the services in Chittagong from September 21. It will gradually extend the services to other areas by October next.
The home ministry decided to allow BPO to render the services after a pilot project at seven city post offices processed passports successfully during a three-month test period last year, he added.
"The home ministry is highly impressed with our performance. We've shown that the passport processing can be done easily, without much extra cost and at a one-stop service point," he said.
Hundreds and thousands of overseas job applicants had to bear extra cost and face daily hassles at the department's head office at the city's Agargaon area and some of its regional head offices to obtain a passport.
On an average, the department issues some 200,000 passports a year, although last year the figure almost doubled due to record number of people going abroad with jobs.
"For processing of each passport, we'll charge only Tk 200. It is the same charge taken by the Trust Bank Limited by doing same job," he said adding that the BPO will deliver passport to applicant's residence and for such a service, it will charge extra Tk 100.
"We'll set up help-desk at all passport processing points of BPO to help applicants fill-up their passport forms. Applicants will also be able to get update information about their passport processing from the BPO website," said BPO DG Mobassher ur Rahman.
The BPO, which is heavily subsidised by the government, incurred a loss of around Tk 1.30 billion in the financial year ending June 2007.
The passport processing job is part of the BPO's major reforms to diversify its work and bring down the annual losses.
The BPO is one of the largest public sector employers, with a strong 40,000 staff working in over 10,000 post offices spread across every nook and corner of the country.
"With BPO's inclusion in the passport processing job, the DIP's passport delivery capacity is expected to increase by at least 20 per cent, DIP Director General Abdur Rob Hawlader said.