NEW DELHI: Passports issued by the Government of India are estimated to touch 8.5 million in 2013-14, according to a senior official from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
India issued 4.819 million passports within the geographical boundaries of the country in the first eight months of 2013, MEA Chief Passport Officer and Joint Secretary Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi has said.
"Over 12-month period this figure would touch 7.2 million passports," Pardeshi said in estimates revealed earlier in September.
"If we add another 1.2 to 1.3 million passports issued by Indian embassies abroad this year, our estimates are going to touch 8.5 million passports issued by the Government of India."
This would signify a 15 percent growth over the last one year.
In 2012, the MEA's 37 passport offices in India and 180 embassies and consulates all over the world issued 7.38 million passports and travel documents.
"If this growth continues during the financial year 2014-15 India will definitely join the club of countries who issue more than 10 million passports a year."
"So, that would be the position in 2014-15 if we go by the current projection," Pardeshi said.
In 2014 India celebrates the centenary of issuing passports, first started in 1914 as British Indian passport under the State of Indian Empire.
The MEA started issuing passports in 1950 after the Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 and promulgated on January 26, 1950 when the Union of India officially became the Republic of India. (QNA)
