Residents in parts of Secunderabad are reporting delays of up to two to three weeks for passport verification, with police attributing the backlog to the recent reorganisation of police commissionerates and the transfer of pending applications to the newly formed Malkajgiri commissionerate.

According to the police officials, a large number of passport verification requests from Alwal and Shamirpet, which were earlier handled by the Cyberabad commissionerate, were reassigned to Malkajgiri in early June. The sudden influx of applications placed additional pressure on the verification process in two densely populated areas that generate a high volume of passport-related requests.

An official from the Special Branch (SB) in Alwal said around 150 pending verification profiles were transferred during the first week of June following the jurisdictional changes.

“These applications were suddenly transferred from Cyberabad to Malkajgiri. Delays have been reported across jurisdictions, but Alwal and Shamirpet have large residential populations and consequently receive a higher number of passport verification requests,” the official said.

The impact has been felt by residents awaiting both fresh passports and renewals. A resident of Alwal who applied for the reissue of his passport said the police verification had not been completed even after more than two weeks. “I had planned to travel by the end of June and expected the process to be completed within the usual timeframe of about a week. When there was no update for over two weeks, I started worrying that my travel plans would be affected,” he said.

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior Cyberabad Special Branch official said the transition period following the bifurcation contributed to delays in processing applications.

“Earlier, these units were part of Cyberabad. After the bifurcation, the manpower was shifted to Malkajgiri, but passport verification requests continued to be routed to Cyberabad by the Regional Passport Office for some time, leading to a backlog,” the official said.

The official added that Cyberabad itself experienced delays after the commissionerate took over Patancheru and Ameenpur police stations from Sangareddy district, increasing the workload on an already busy system.

“Cyberabad handles around 700 passport verification requests every day because of its large population of IT professionals, gated communities and migrant workforce. The additional load initially pushed verification timelines to around 10 days,” the official said.

Police officials said passport verification was typically completed within a week before the reorganisation. They added that efforts are currently focused on clearing the backlog and that normal processing timelines are expected to resume by next month.