Kochi: Regional Passport Office in Cochin has won the award for the Best Passport Office in India for the year 2020-21 followed by Passport Offices in Jalandhar and Thiruvananthapuram respectively.

This is the seventh year that the Cochin Office is selected for the Best Passport Office in India under Passport Seva Puraskar constituted by the Ministry of External Affairs in 2014, Regional Passport Officer Bhanulali said in a release here on Thursday.

The parameter for assessment of performance of a Passport Office is based on 15 yardsticks which include appointment availability, time taken for processing passport applications and grievance redressal, speed at which passports are issued, productivity of employees, total pendency, escalation of files from PSKs etc.

Speedy Police verification by the Police Department and speedy dispatch by the Postal Department contributed to the efficiency of the Cochin Office.

In individual performance, two officials from RPO, Cochin, was also awarded 2nd and 3rd prize by Ministry of External Affairs for verifying 141 and 139 passport applications per day during the year 2020-21.