After successful bidding for Pilot Passport Project, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in public-private initiative will start the same in Bangalore, and Chandigarh. Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs accepted the bidding from TCS. The deal according to some reports is worth Rs.10-15 billion. The initiative is a part of e-governance project.

 

Under the project, the new joint collaboration promises to offer issuance of a new passport within three days and shorten queue time. As of now, it takes more than 30 days to issue a new passport, and in worst case it could extend up to six to nine months. However, initially, it will be available in a couple of locations, only later to be made all India presence.

 

Accordingly, the pilot project will be operational for about eight months, and after eight months of implementation, there will be three months of 'testing' to evaluate the system. According to sources the entire system has to be operational within 19 months of the contract being signed. However, there has been opposition from employees side on outsourcing of their jobs to private firm TCS.