Miscellaneous
Mobile app for PP application launched
Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat on Tuesday launched a mobile app in a bid to make the passport acquiring system more tech-friendly.Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat on Tuesday launched a mobile app in a bid to make the passport acquiring system more tech-friendly.
After a successful test, the Department of Passport (DoP) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the mobile app ‘Nepal Passport’ will come into operation from Thursday.
Service seekers can download the app from play store, download the application form and fill out the required personal details.
Upon submission, the app generates a barcode which the service seekers can save it on their mobile phone or take its print out before visiting the DoP for final processing of the passport application.
After receiving the barcode, applicants can take an appointment at the DoP to take a photo, authentication of the citizenship and pay the required fees to acquire the passport.
But at present, the option of paying the passport fees is unavailable online. “We will introduce such services in near future,” said a DoP official.
Earlier in November, the government had introduced live enrolment centres at the DoP and some of its overseas missions to provide efficient and hassle-free service to the applicants.
After the app’s launch, Minister Mahat instructed officials: “We have to think about providing better services by utilising and exploiting the latest information technology.”
The DoP and the Consular Department—two entities of the ministry—have recently rung in changes in terms of providing easy and quick services to the public.
The Consular Department has started providing
services from 9am, introducing a token system to avoid long queues.
The DoP said that it was considering to provide two types of passports—for frequent travellers and ordinary travellers. “We are going to increase the number of pages of passports.”
Many frequent flyers have been complaining that they are forced to make a new passport due to fewer number of pages in the machine readable passport. The Ministry is also looking into complaints over expensive passport fees. The Ministry of Finance fixes the passport fees.
While lauding the DoP efforts as commendable, Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi urged it to strive for a continued improvement in this respect.
Director General of the DoP Sushil Kumar said that his best efforts are focused
on making the passport acquiring system easy and affordable.
Apart from Kathmandu, the new system will be available at Nepal’s foreign missions in Doha (Qatar), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Abu Dhabi (UAE), London (UK), Washington DC and New York (US). It will be expanded to other Nepali missions in the future, said ministry officials.