Demand for RPO in Mangaluru highlights service bottlenecks at local PSK
Mangaluru: A senior local Congress leader on Wednesday urged the Union government to open Karnataka’s second Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Mangaluru, asserting that the existing Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) here is overburdened and serves a wide swathe of coastal and interior districts.
Lawrence D’Souza, president of the District Congress Labour Cell, said the Mangaluru PSK caters not only to applicants from Dakshina Kannada but also to residents of Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Hassan. He told reporters that Karnataka currently has only one RPO and five PSKs, while neighbouring states have more: Kerala three RPOs and Tamil Nadu four, according to a report in the Times of India.
“Establishing an RPO in Mangaluru would help ease the workload on the state’s lone regional office in Bengaluru,”
D’Souza cited official application statistics for the 2020-25 period, saying about 10,01,273 applications were received in Karnataka and nearly 9,85,831 were processed. He said the Mangaluru PSK handles roughly 600 applications a day on average between about 9am and 5.30pm, which he calculated to be about 75 applications an hour.
- Daily average handled at Mangaluru PSK: 600 applications
- Reported seating capacity inside centre: ~60 seats
- Peak-time crowd inside the centre: ~250 applicants
- Additional waiting room capacity: 25–30 seats
D’Souza highlighted operational issues at the PSK. He alleged that several counters across the centre’s three sections are left unattended, token numbers are not always called sequentially — with groups of numbers sometimes summoned together — and applicants are asked to provide additional photocopies only after reaching internal counters despite waiting for long periods.
He also raised concerns about facilities available to applicants. D’Souza said the in-house photocopy service charges ₹10 per page and does not accept digital payments, that many applicants struggle to find parking, and that the centre lacks adequate drinking water and properly ventilated waiting space. He said some applicants must climb steep iron steps to reach an additional waiting room.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Karnataka applications (2020–25) | 10,01,273 |
| Processed applications (2020–25) | 9,85,831 |
| Average daily at Mangaluru PSK | 600 |
Implications for residents across coastal and hill districts
If approved by the Union Home Ministry, a local RPO in Mangaluru could decentralise passport processing for a substantial portion of coastal Karnataka and adjoining districts, shortening travel time to Bengaluru and potentially reducing delays in verification and issuance. For many residents of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and interior districts, the nearest RPO at present remains Bengaluru.
For elderly applicants, those with children, daily wage earners and frequent travellers, shorter queues and more efficient token systems would lower the time and monetary cost of obtaining travel documents. Local industry groups and educational institutions that rely on overseas recruitment and placements say predictable passport turnaround times are important for students and workers, and a second RPO could benefit the region’s economic links.
The demand by a district political leader frames the issue as both an administrative necessity and a matter of regional equity when compared with neighbouring states. The Times of India reported D’Souza’s remarks; there has been no official confirmation from the Union Home Ministry or the state government on any proposal or formal request at the time of reporting.
Officials at the existing Mangaluru PSK and the Karnataka RPO in Bengaluru were not quoted in the original report. Any formal proposal for a new RPO would require approval from the Union government and allocation of infrastructure and staff, and would involve coordination between the Ministry of External Affairs’ passport authorities and state civic agencies.
Local civic groups and district administration sources will be watching for any response from the Centre or the state, given the practical strains D’Souza outlined that affect hundreds of applicants each working day.
