In a bid to revamp the passport distribution system, the Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started providing passport in a single day by charging a fee of Rs 15,000.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa started the service on Sunday, handing over a Machine Readable Passport (MRP) to Chandrakali Budathoki of Dhanauri, Dang, within 10 minutes of her filing an application. This service to the service seekers will begin in earnest on Tuesday.

Likewise, for those who want to procure the MRP within two days can do that by paying Rs 12,000, while the travel document can be acquired in three days at Rs 10,000.

Earlier, it would take a week to procure an MRP even after paying Rs10,000. The DoP has said that service seekers can get MRPs through the normal process from their respective District Administration Offices within 5-15 days by paying Rs 5,000. Earlier, it would take one month to get an MRP through the normal process.

Also on Sunday, the department launched a live enrolment system. The new system allows service seekers to fill out a digital application form from anywhere, but they will have to appear in person at the department within 21 days for verification of their details and signature. Upon filling out the form, the system provides a bar code to the applicant. Then the applicant can visit the DoP to make payment and for photograph.

“But citizenship verification is mandatory. Applicants should get the document verified from the respective districts,” said Lok Bahadur Thapa, director general of the DoP.

Due to lack of manpower, technical feasibility and other logistic reasons, the service is only available at the DoP and some Nepali missions abroad at present. 

The digital data will get deleted automatically after 21 days of the submission of the application form.

“The system will set a new milestone in the history of passport distribution in the country,” DPM Thapa said, speaking at the inauguration function. He added that the government was actively working to provide MRPs to people at the district level too through the fast-track system.

Former official at Foreign Ministry Gopal Bahadur Thapa has hailed the department’s ability to issue the passport in a day from the date of receiving the application as a matter of “great national pride”. But he has certain reservations. Issuing a document as sensitive as a passport without a day of thorough vetting of applicants’ antecedents may lead to serious consequences. “I think no country in the world issues such a sensitive document in such a rush and urgency as it seems to be the case now in Nepal,” Thapa said.