Passport Seva Kendras to open in all North-East states by March 31

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday announced that all the North-East states, namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura will get their own Passport Seva Kendras by March 31.

"Before the next financial year, that is March 31, we will open Passport Seva Kendras in all the North-East states," she told a press conference here.

Swaraj also announced that the Centre has agreed to double the production of number of passport booklets published per year keeping in mind the recent demand of passports.

"Around one crore booklets used to produced annually, which led to a great shortage of passports. When I was made the External Affairs Minister, I found that the shortage of passport booklets was more than six lakhs. Thus now, we have decided that the number of booklets produced shall be increased to two crores annually," she said.

The External Affairs Minister further said that there was a plan to start passport camps, where the people would be able to get their passports made.

"We want to start passport camps, where people can come and get their passports made for those who find it difficult to travel to Passport Seva Kendras. We want to open a passport camp in every district in the country," she said.

As of December 31, 2013, the number of valid passports in the country was 5,19, 29,132.