AGARTALA, Dec 18 (TIWN): The much awaited project of opening an International Passport centre in Tripura is just 15 days away, as confirmed by BJP leader Biplab Deb.Talking to TIWN correspondent on Friday BJP Mahajansampark observer Biplab Deb said that if everything falls in place the office for the International passport centre will be inaugurated within next 15 days in Tripura. He also said that External affairs Minister Shushma Swaraj will possibly do the inauguration of the Passport Office centre by the end of this month.However, with the aim to check the set up of the Passport Seva Kendra at Agartala, a four member team of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had arrived in the state to review the progress works of mini Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) before its formal inauguration. Sources said that four officials including Golok Kumar Simli (Principal Consultant and head-technology), A.K. Surti-Director MEA, A.K. Jena-project consultant, a total of 4 members representative team arrived from New Delhi and inspected the progress works of mini PSK at old municipal office building in Jackson Gate area of Agartala.Taking a note of the PSK at Jackson gate, the officials expressed satisfaction over the set up and assured that by the end of December PSK will be inaugurated. All the required machineries and equipments are already fixed and the officials of MEA have given satisfactory remarks for the inauguration of the PSK in the state soon.

External affairs Minister Shushma Swaraj might come down to the state for the inauguration of the PSK, said Deb.

The decision of opening a new International passport centre at Agartala  was conveyed to  him when he met External affairs Minister Shushma Swaraj’s private secretary Satish Gupta.

BJP Leader Biplab Deb further said that, Union Ministry has approved the proposal of setting up an International Passport Centre at Agartala and the probability of setting up the office by the end of December is high.

According to the officials, except Guwahati there is no passport office in Northeast region but earlier Tripura’s Passport Seva was under Kolkata Regional Passport office because of better communication with Kolkata and the state government's choice.

However, the state had been demanding for an international passport centre in Agartala following growing demands of passport and high frequency of abroad travel by the people of the state.

The demand for the international passport centre in Tripura has gone high with the sudden withdrawn of the handwritten passports. Withdrawn of handwritten passport, pressure for International passport has increased in many folds of Tripura and it has become inconvenient for the citizen to pursue for passport after submission of online applications. However, once the passport office will be inaugurated in Tripura, it will become easy for the people to issue an international passport within 20 days of documentation.