The number of people obtaining passport has significantly risen in Chitwan. According to the District Administration Office, a total of 20,417 persons had received their passports in the last fiscal while the number was 16,301 the year before. Only 11,585 people from the district had obtained passports in the fiscal 2013/14.

 

Administrative Officer of the DAO Shesh Kanta Poudel said the number of passport seekers had escalated as Machine Readable Passports would be a must in foreign countries after November 24, 2015. “As a passport has 10-year validity, people with no immediate plan to go abroad have also been procuring it,” said Poudel. With the growing number of passport seekers, the office’s revenue collection has gone remarkably up, said Uma Kanta Poudel, Account Chief at the DAO. Of the total revenue of Rs 109.5 million, Rs 100 million were collected from passports alone.

 

According to DAO, it collected Rs 20 million additional revenue compared to the last year.