New Delhi: A significant technical glitch in the Passport Seva Portal on Thursday stalled activities in Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) all over India. Candidates who came to centres at appointed hours encountered non-functionality of centres, and some had to learn about the breakage upon arriving at the destination. The outage extended to Friday, and this has left many passport-seekers stranded, particularly those that were to travel urgently.

On social media platform X, frustrated users submitted complaints, citing the lack of communication by authorities and the impossibility of rescheduling appointments in the short term. There were numerous screenshots of cancellation messages that were received late at night, and there were complaints of locked gates and a lack of any on-ground assistance.

Applicants face chaos and confusion at PSKs

Residents of towns and cities, such as Delhi, Bhopal, Thane, and Ghaziabad, complained of being caught unawares. Mehul Kothari, a user of X, said that the appointment of his children was cancelled at midnight, the second instance in two months. Vidya Nand Rai, another petitioner, provided a picture of a print advertisement that was stuck to an enclosed PSK without prior SMS, email or even telephonic communication to notify the visitors of the inconvenience.

Families and business travellers have been found to be particularly affected by this disruption. Reported by ET, Rahul Sharma, a father planning a family vacation to the US next year, was worried about the effect of the delay on his son who was applying for the passport which may disrupt their plan of applying for the visa. Some others claimed that rescheduling was not possible within weeks, and the next dates appeared in months.

No official word from MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the official Passport Seva handlers chose to stay silent until Friday morning in spite of the magnitude of the outage. Such secrecy has even worsened the condition of users who are already struggling with missed appointments and unclear schedules.

This is not the first time that the portal has crashed. Another mishap in April soured passport services across the country by two days. That incident, as well, had caused a backlog of appointments, last-minute rescheduling, and panic by travellers.