AGARTALA, Oct 25 - If everything falls in place, an international passport centre would start functioning here by November which would be a gift to the people of the State on the eve of Diwali.
The decision of establishing an international passport centre here has been conveyed to BJP leader Biplab Deb when he met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj�s Private Secretary Satish Gupta recently.
The BJP leader on Saturday greeted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the decision of setting up the international passport centre at Agartala. When contacted, Deb tonight confirmed the BJP-led government�s decision of establishing the centre at Agartala by November next.
�Recently I went to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj but she was in Russia on an official engagement. However, the Union Minister�s Private Secretary told me that the Ministry has approved a proposal of setting up an international passport centre at Agartala. And it will start functioning by November�, he said.
Deb also said, �Since the decision is beneficial for the State, today I met the External Affairs Minister and congratulated her for the bold decision.�
Once the passport centre starts operational at Agartala, people will be able to get international passport within fifteen to twenty days. Currently, the people of the State are facing a lot of trouble to get passport since there is no passport centre in the State.
After introduction of direct bus service between Agartala-Kolkata via Dhaka, demand for passports has gone up by many folds.
