New Post Office Passport Seva Kendra Opens In Periyar Nagar To Serve North Chennai

Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs L. Murugan launched a new Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) in Periyar Nagar, Chennai, on Thursday. The new facility is designed to bring essential passport services closer to the residents of north Chennai and its surrounding fringes.

During the inauguration ceremony, Minister Murugan handed over the first passport processed at the newly established Periyar Nagar centre to the parents of a six-month-old infant. The launch was also attended by Chennai North MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Isha Srivastava, Chief Postmaster General (Tamil Nadu Circle) Mariamma Thomas, and Regional Passport Officer (Chennai) S. Vijayakumar.

The Periyar Nagar facility is the second POPSK to be established in Chennai, following the first one located at the Chennai GPO. The new centre is designed to handle a high density of passport applicants from the northern parts of the city. It will initially cater to approximately 40 applicants on a daily basis, with plans to gradually scale up its capacity to handle 90 applicants per day.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Murugan highlighted that post offices have been integrated to offer multiple public utility services under a single roof. In addition to passport processing, these integrated services include banking, insurance, and Aadhar services. He noted that the Union government is working to ensure that services reach citizens at the grassroots level. He added that since 2014, benefits from various central social welfare schemes have been transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism.

The opening of this facility is part of a larger initiative by the Union Ministry of External Affairs, which aims to open one POPSK in every Parliamentary constituency. Outside of Chennai, the Department of Posts already operates similar POPSK centres in several other districts, including Vellore, Villupuram, Ranipet, and Kancheepuram.