Mumbai Passport Office – A case study in operations mismanagement

If anyone wants a case study on operations improvement then there would be nothing better than the functioning of the passport office in Mumbai. You will find so many fail points. The officials there are oblivious to all the ops troubles that any manager would strive to avoid – and you don’t need an MBA degree for that. It’s all common sense. But not to the people running the passport office.

Let’s look at the various aspects of this prime example of operations mismanagement

Online Application

When my sister Tasneem and I had to renew our passports we checked out the website of the passport office. It said that you can apply online if you fall within the jurisdiction of certain office and that list included Mumbai. After filling the online application you have to turn up on the appointed day and time and submit the physical copy. No need to stand in lines. Gone are the days of standing in serpentine queues at the passport office!!! Or so it seemed. So we decided to junk the passport agent and do it ourselves. We applied online and the system said we could submit our form on Apr 19^th at 10.15 AM. Satisfied, we waited for 15 days for our ‘appointment’.

On April 19 when, after a 5 hour nightmare at the passport office, I spoke to the ‘Superintendant – Complaints’ we found out that this system was not applicable in Mumbai. He coolly told us that the new system is only for the Delhi office. ‘Zara website pe padh liya karo’ he said, ‘wahan likha hai’. That is the only time in life I have wished I was in Delhi, not Mumbai!!! I scanned the website later but haven’t been able to find this ‘fine print’ yet. Agar kisi ko mile to please bata dena. Normally forms mein fine print hota hai par hum padhte nahi. Aur yahan yeh log umeed rakhte hai ke hum pehle fine print dhoondege aur fir padhege. Crap. We weren’t the only ones fooled by this. One lady had come happily all the way from Goa because she thought this system made passport issue “DIY’.

Generation of records

For issue of the passport you have to first register (physical or online) with them and then turn up anytime after 2 days from registration for the application. In this age of IT I wonder why it should take 2 days for ‘the record to be generated’ (as the passport office put it) especially for the online application. Hence, when my sister’s application under Tatkal was rejected because they needed the full name of the parents in the form we were told to re-register online and then come back after 2 days. Their system doesn’t have any facility to make changes, not even by the person who registered.

The queue

Every day there are serpentine queues outside the passport office in the morning. People even come at 7 in the morning thinking they will be the first when the office opens at 10. Unfortunately, the agents beat them to this. No no, not the passport agents. But people who make a living by standing in line for you and trading places when the time to go inside the office comes. They charge 100-150 bucks for this. Pretty neat considering that you will save a minimum of 4-5 hours of waiting. They, ofcourse, would be sharing it with the guards who allow them to do this ‘business’.

Inside the Hall

At 9.30 they start allowing people to go inside Hall 1 where there are 19 counters in all. They let in so many people at a time that there is chaos. Lines inter-twine for lack of space. It reminded me of the local trains of Mumbai. Perhaps this was even worse than that. Pushing, shoving, adjusting, that’s how people have to manage. The lines of some of the counters have chairs, others don’t. I wasn’t able to figure out the reason for this.

On all the counters some info is written. But it is wrong - both the purpose of the counter as well as the time till when the counter will remain open. Many people end up standing in the wrong line and then hours of standing go waste when they have to go to the correct line, at the back of it. An example is counter 19 – Reissue under Tatkal. One of the posters on the window reads ‘Fresh/ Minor - Any Counter, Reissue – Counter 19’. And people are supposed to interpret this as Counter 19 is only for reissue of major’s passports under tatkal . For Fresh/ Minor passports under tatkal any other counter will do

Instead of this they should implement a system where everyone gets a number and can sit till his/her number is called.

Misinformation

There are boards inside which mention what documents are needed. But there are so many of them for different kinds of passports (fresh, minor, reissue) that people get confused and read the wrong one.

Nowhere have they mentioned that there is something called a scanning form which is a must for reissue application. Most people find that out in the line and the have to run to get it. Some even discover this at the counter!!!!

Rejects

Maybe half the people are turned away either for lack of some document or the other or due to some mistake in the form. They have to come back some other day and again spend hours at this place. I met a guy who had come for the third time and still they found something missing and asked him to come again. These people expect you to drop everything and spend days waiting in their office. I have never seen such unhelpful officials.

Just think about it. The daily line would be half if people knew what documents are required and how to fill the form correctly!!!!

Reworks

For every minor change in the form the superintendant’s sign is required. And they never check the whole form at one go. If they find a mistake they ask you to change it, get the superintendant’s sign and come back and then the rest of your form will be checked. Some people end up going to him 2-3 times. Hence there is a huge crowd around his table at any time. You have people shuttling between the counter they were at and his table. Such a waste if time.

People getting work done inside

I saw a couple shuttling behind the counters and the superintendants’ table. After ½ an hour they came out smiling. Obviously, they had their work done ‘inside’ while people patiently waited outside.

12.30 PM Deadline

At 12.30 they stop taking people into hall 1. So if anyone has been unlucky enough to wait outside for hours and still his turn didn’t come, well it’s his fault.

Tatkal counter

The Tatkal counter, which is just next to the Superintendant’s table, also ends up serving as the enquiry counter. Everyone who has been asked to get ‘bade saab’s sign’ first enquires there and then proceeds. People also come there for other enquiries. Hence, the processing of applications at this counter takes the longest. The consolation is that atleast the passport comes faster.