Srinagar, May 13: Want to know the status of your passport? Just send an SMS to the Regional Passport Office, Srinagar.
In a bid to curtail the rush of applicants, who throng the office everyday to know the status of their passport applications, the RPO has launched Short Messaging Service (SMS).
The service was formally launched by the Regional Passport Officer, G A Dar on Thursday following Central government’s approval.
“Since the internet facility is available to a limited number of people in J&K, people used to travel daily or ring up the office whole day to know about the status of their passport applications. This was adversely affecting work and taking heavy toll on working hours of the officials and officers. So we have launched this service for the public convenience,” said Dar. “To render hassle-free and prompt service for the convenience of people, the office made strenuous efforts to update records during several weeks.”
Pertinently, the passport status and other information was already available on passport office website, www.passport.nic.in.

HOW TO USE SERVICE
Applicants will have to send the SMS to 57272 in the following manner: (PASS SGRA0093810). The applicants will have to type  ‘Pass’ which stands for passport, followed by ‘Sgr’ which means office code, and the ‘File number’ followed by the year code. One space has to be left after ‘Pass’ and ‘Sgr’. But there should not be any space between the two words. The text should be fed either in small or capital letters. “Applicants will have to wait for some more time if the server is busy and then try again. If reply is ‘Service not available’, it means the server is busy,” the officials said.
They believe that initial response was likely to show “server busy” due to jamming of lines. “But as the people will use it the problem will subside,” they said.
 The service will be available round-the-clock. It is free from passport server to the applicant.
 Meanwhile, the enquiry timings at counter at passport office Srinagar are now from 11.30 am to 1 pm.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 13 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 13 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:00 IST