19 more passport offices soon

The government has decided to set up 19 more regional passport offices in the country soon to ease traveling abroad, and reduce public sufferings and harassments in getting passports, official sources said here on Sunday, reports BSS.
Additional 1,050 officers and employees would also be recruited for those offices mostly at the district level as the Passport and Immigration Department is limping with only 431 manpower, the sources added.
With the new offices, the number of regional passport offices would be 34 and total manpower 1,431.
Meanwhile, the department proposed the government for appointing passport and immigration officials to all immigration points and foreign missions to render passport and visa-related services to the expatriate Bangladeshi nationals and foreigners also.
According to officials of the Home Ministry and the Passport and Immigration Directorate, the new offices would be set up at Uttara and Jatrabari in the capital, Bahaddar Hat in Chittagong city, Narsingdi, Tangail, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Bogra, Kushtia, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Kishoreganj, Cox’s Bazar, Feni, Rangamati, Moulvibazar, Dinajpur, Pabna and Patuakhali.
Apart from the new offices, a personalisation centre and a central data centre would also be set up on the ground and first floor of the Passport and Immigration Directorate at Agargaon, the officials said.
All the machinery for issuing machine readable passports (MRPs) would also be set up and information of all passport seekers preserved at the central data centre, the officials added.
Besides, a disaster recovery centre comprising the information of the personalization centre and the central data centre would be set up at Jessore under this project as it could give the back up support to the department if the central system collapsed by any kinds of disaster.
All the new and old regional passport offices would be brought under the digital computer network as any office can share any information easily, the official added.
A senior official of the directorate told BSS that the Establishment Ministry has already approved the proposal for new offices and additional manpower.
The matter is now lying with the Finance Ministry, the official said adding that after getting the clearance of the Finance Ministry, the proposal would be taken to a secretary level committee for final approval.
As per the project profile, the setting up of the regional passport offices and three important centres would be completed by March 31, but it has became almost uncertain as the introduction of the MRP by April 1 may defer due to some unavoidable technical reasons, the official added.

Courtesy of The News Today