Dear Tourist, you are in the queue

KOCHI: With the arrival of cruise ships to the Cochin Port, the Immigration wing is reeling under acute shortage of staff. At present, the Immigration wing, which has no trained officers, needs an entire day to verify the documents of the tourists of a single vessel and this apparently is delaying the schedule of the vessels.The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had taken charge of the immigration wing in November 2011. For a vessel carrying over 2,000 tourists, there are only six to nine counters for immigration clearance.“Over 11 officials from the police and the IB are posted at the port to carry out immigration checking. Of this, only three are above the rank of circle-inspector.Passport verification and clearance can be granted only by an officer in the rank of a sub-inspector or above. But, here we have to manage it with civil police officers. Since they are not adequately trained to conduct verification, it takes more than a day to complete the immigration procedures. At present, we require a minimum of 25 immigration counters,” an intelligence official said.The freezing of bulk clearance process has also added to the woes.“Earlier, we used to conduct clearance of documents in a bulk. But as part of intensifying the security checks, we had to stop the bulk clearance process and check documents individually. But, no extra staff was allotted towards this. Now, we have to depend on officers from the Cochin International Airport when there is a heavy rush here. But, we cannot continue to depend on the airport. Some times, they too find it hard to allot additional staff to the port,” a police official said.According to a highly- placed official in the Immigration wing of the Cochin Port, the delay in the immigration clearance will affect the arrival of tourist vessels.“It is true that the long procedures and delay from the immigration wing will affect the cruise sector. A cruise vessel normally faces delay of almost two days when anchored in the port. The government should allot additional personnel to strengthen the immigration wing,” he added.