Director General of the Department of Passport and Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ramesh Prasad Khanal, told that the government was close to a decision to establish more application collection centres within a few days to ease the existing problem of the applicants having to stay in line for up to 15 hours to submit the applications at the Department.

He said they have proposed to increase the existing three such centres at the Department to six and the service recipients, who submit the application to the District Administration Office, would not have to come to the Department.

Khanal added that preparation to increase the number of such centres has reached the final phase in the ministry-level meeting.

Around 2,000 applications are registered at the Department daily and around 4,000 applications daily at the District Administration Offices across the nation.

One should pay Rs. 10,000 for getting passport through the fast track and Rs. 5,000 under regular process.

Meanwhile, the Department has also proposed to the government to implement the direct registration process for passport from all districts from this year.