KATHMANDU, July 4: With the Department of Passport on Sunday launching pre-live enrolment system to provide passport, any Nepali citizen can get a machine-readable passport (MRP) within a day of submitting an application at the department. All that the service-seeker needs to do is fill an online-form and pay some extra to the department.
According to the department chief Lok Bahadur Thapa, the form is available on the website of the department, nepalpassport.gov.np. After filling the form and submitting it online, the website will generate a bar-code. The online form provides options to the service seekers on the number of days within which they want their passports.
"If someone wants to get a passport within a day, they can come to the department with bar-code and pay Rs 15,000. We will just take a photograph, review the form and provide passport within the same day," said Thapa.
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According to Thapa, a service seeker needs to pay Rs 12000 if he/she wants a passport within 48 hours and only Rs 10,000 if they want a passport within three days.
The fast-track system is installed at the Kathmandu office of the department as well as in 10 Nepali missions abroad - namely in Washington DC, New York, London, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Kuwait.
"Until now service seekers had to bring a hard copy of the form with citizenship details from the district administration offices. But today onward, the form can be filled online and district administration will write to the department about the citizenship details," said Thapa.
The new system has yet to reach district administration offices but the government plans to take it to the district-level also. However, the service seekers applying for passport from the district administration offices will also be benefited from the new system.
"We have decided to prepare passport within 24 hours when any district administration office brings in application form to the department. This means service seekers will get passports within 5 to 15 days after applying through the district administration office," said Thapa.
Inaugurating the new system on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa handed over an MRP to Chandrakali Budhathoki of Dhanauri, Dang within 10 minutes of receiving her application form.
Inaugurating the system, DPM Thapa said that the system has become a milestone in the passport distribution history of the country. He also added that the government has been actively working to provide MRP to people through district administration offices through the fast-track system.
