Two lakh passports have already arrived and awaiting clearance, said a source.

There was a severe passport crisis last year. The authorities imported 15 lakh passports from France. These passports were supposed to be sufficient till next December. The monthly demand for passports at that time was 60-70 thousand a month on an average. During the crisis many people reportedly had to pay upto Tk 10,000 to brokers for each passport.

Till November over five lakh applications for passports are pending with the country's 15 passport offices. Of them, about 50 per cent applications have been submitted in the last two months. More than one and a half lakh applications were dropped in October alone, sources said.

Replying to a question on the sudden rise in demand for passports, an official at the Agargaon office attributed it to the increase in manpower export to some countries. Malaysia is resuming import while Korea, Kuwait and Italy are also taking fresh manpower, he said.

The demand for passports suddenly shot up 2-3 times and it is increasing everyday. And if this trend continues, there is a possibility of passport crisis by February or March, he observed.

Apprehending the situation, the passport department informed the matter to the home ministry. The ministry at a meeting decided to take immediate steps to import 14 lakh new passports, the official said. Tk 11 crore has been allocated for this and the amount may be increased upto Tk 15-17 crore. The new passports are being imported from France, he added.

Everyday, hundreds of passport seekers flock to the city's Agargaon office surrounded by swarms of brokers.

The fee for an international passport varies between Tk 2000 and Tk 5000 depending on the categories. The 'very urgent' one is supposed to be issued in 72 hours while the 'urgent' and 'ordinary' ones in 12 days and one month respectively.

But the applicants often do not get passports in time on the pretext of delay in police verification or for 'other' reasons.

Taking this advantage, the brokers make brisk business in collusion with a section of passport officials. They charge almost double the amount for each passport. There are also frequent reports of deception by the brokers.

The government is now studying the feasibility to import machine-readable passports (MRP) from either USA or Canada, said a source in the passport office.