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Kathmandu, Nov 7: The Department of Passports (DoP) in Tripureshwar is facing growing pressure as demand for passports surges while available booklets remain limited. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is working to address the shortage, but for now, the department can issue only about 1,000 passports per day.

Officials confirmed that the department will not be able to bring in additional passport booklets until February 23. Under a procurement agreement signed in July 2025, new infrastructure and systems are being prepared so that full-scale production can resume from that date.

Starting October 31, the department began accepting only 1,000 applications daily. The ministry has asked the public to apply for passports only in urgent cases, such as medical emergencies, immediate employment abroad, or when facing hardship overseas.

“We are in a transitional phase. Full production will start from February 23 under the new procurement deal. Until then, we ask for public cooperation,” said Lok Bahadur Paudel Kshetri, spokesperson for the ministry.

Meanwhile, to curb the growing influence of brokers amid the passport shortage, the Foreign Ministry sent a confidential letter to the Home Ministry on October 31, urging police to monitor and, if needed, raid the passport office premises. The move followed complaints of brokers charging large sums to expedite applications.

The letter, signed by section officer Kapilmani Ghimire, requested the Home Ministry to deploy police and other agencies for covert surveillance inside the passport office to deter such activities and ensure smoother service delivery.

However, the letter — intended for confidential police operation — was somehow leaked, alerting the brokers. This has raised suspicion that employees colluding with the brokers deliberately made it public to warn them. Since the leak, brokers have temporarily disappeared from the department, fueling speculation that the disclosure was orchestrated by officials and middlemen working together.

People’s News Monitoring Service