The passport office in Chaguanas will finally be opened some time this month, Minister of State in the National Security Ministry, Donna Cox, said yesterday.

"Bearing unforeseen circumstances, the Chaguanas passport office is expected to be in operation in July," Cox said in response to a question on the Order Paper from Caroni Central MP Dr Hamza Rafeeq.

"The ministry is satisfied that despite the time taken to locate appropriate accommodation to house the new Chaguanas passport office, the identified facility is adequate.''

She said as it related to meeting security requirements of the machine readable passport system, customisation works at the facility was 90 per cent complete.

The Immigration Division, Cox said, will work on the acquiring of equipment and staff and when in operation, the passport office will have the capability to process some 625 passport applications per week.

In 2006, the Chaguanas passport office was closed and according to Chaguanas Mayor Suruj Rambachan, this was due to a lack of equipment for the machine readable passport.

The new Chaguanas passport office is located at Gaston Court, Chaguanas.