By acquiring 10 new printing machines, the Department of Passports and Immigration has made a major move to address the chronic backlog in passport issuing.
According to sources, the department has been dealing with a serious problem for more than a year, and the activation of these machines is anticipated to speed up the passport production process.
In an effort to address the ongoing delays, the agency requested new passport printing equipment from the Ministry of Home Affairs in May.
Six desktop computers and two e-passport models are among the recently purchased machines, which are imported and have an amazing 1,000 passport printing capacity per hour.
An estimated 800,000 applications are still languishing nationwide as a result of the passport issue delays.
