Sushma Swaraj To Inaugurate Country’s First Videsh Bhavan:- Assimilating all Regional Passport Offices under one roof, at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai on Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will inaugurate the country’s first Videsh Bhavan.

Regional Passport Officer Swati Kulkarni said four offices of MEA - Regional Passport Office (RPO), Protector of Emigrants (PoE) office, Branch Secretariat and Regional Office of ICCR, as a first pilot project have been assimilated and brought under one roof at the state-of-art office.

Kulkarni further added that to grace the occasion, Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (Retd) V.K. Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Administrator of Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Praful Patel and other dignitaries will be present.

Sushma Swaraj will do the formal inauguration on August 27. Prior to this event, there will be shifting of the RPO from its Worli premises to the Videsh Bhavan from August 14 and merging of the Thane and Mumbai RPOs from August 21. But, the current Passport Seva Kendras in Thane and Malad (Mumbai) will continue to function.

Part of the Centre’s policy, the pilot project of the Videsh Bhavan of Mumbai aims to bring together different offices of the MEA under a single roof. It also focuses to work closely with states as more and more Indians are going abroad for employment, education, business and tourism.

Besides ensuring improving efficiency and hastening delivery of services, many of the 90-plus RPOs and PoEs function from rented offices and the implementation of Videsh Bhavans in different state capitals currently are expected to cut costs.

SUPRAJA