The country?s largest software company, TCS, which had bagged the Rs 1,000 crore Passport seva project from the ministry of external affairs last year, is readying to launch the first pilot of the project at seven centres in six cities by June this year. The project aims at expediting the process of issuance of passport to three working days post police verification, a process which currently takes between 30 and 45 working days.
It will facilitate the issuance of passport under the Taktal scheme the same day, which currently takes between 7-15 days.
?The first pilot will be rolled out in three cities in the North-Ambala, Chandigarh and Ludhiana and three cities in the South-Mangalore, Hubli and Bangalore,? Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president, global government business group, TCS told FE. After the pilot is rolled-out, another 90 days will be required to test its functionality. ?Once that?s done, we will be able to roll-out the service in the remaining 72 centres within the next six months,? added Chakrabarty.
Though the pilot is running late by two months caused by the delay in identifying sites for the data centre, Chakrabarty said the project will be completed on time and will meet its deadline of 2010. Under the project, TCS will set up 79 Passport Seva Kendres across the country, which will provide the citizen interface. The existing passport offices will work as back-end offices.
Based on a PPP model, it will be entirely on TCS to manage the 79 kendras.