Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) plans to launch a pilot project for Passport Seva Project, a public-private initiative to improve passport services in two cities soon.

The ministry of external affairs has offered the Rs10-15 billion ($231m-$347m) project to TCS, which is yet to be formalised. One of the main objectives of the project is to issue a new passport within three days and shorten the waiting time. Presently it takes more than 30 days to issue a new passport. It may even drag on for more than 6 months.

The pilot project is planned in Bangalore and Chandigarh and is expected to extend for 8 months. Following this period, the project will be tested for another 3 months. The project is expected to be implemented within 19 months after signing the contract. Both parties are studying the contract and have not made a formal announcement yet. The contract should be signed in a couple of weeks.

The passport employees’ union and intelligence agencies have opposed the project claiming that involving a private player could lead to serious security problems. The union also argued that in spite of not recruiting new staff, the department was able to handle the steep rise in the number of applications. According to the government, TCS will be handling only front-end and non-sensitive parts of the proceedings. All the sensitive sections of the proceedings will be handled by the government sector. The plan was approved by the union ministry in September 2007. X