Within hours, 8,000 philatelic passports were sold in Karnataka

A person collecting a philately passport at Bengaluru Head Office on Sunday.

Hours after the Karnataka Postal Circle launched a new set of philatelic passports for sale on October 10 and 11, all 8,000 passports in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mysuru and Belagavi were sold out quickly. While Bengaluru sold 3,000 passports, the three districts sold 1,500 in two days.

People waited in a long queue at Bengaluru General Post Office on Sunday to get their philately passport. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

According to Karnataka Postal Circle officials, travel enthusiasts, philatelists and others lined up in queues of several hundred meters as early as 2 am on Sunday (October 11, 2026). Police personnel installed barricades around the General Post Office (GPO) in Bengaluru and guarded the place to prevent any untoward incident. People also brought speakers, played music and danced to pass the time while waiting in line.

People waited in a long queue at Bengaluru General Post Office on Sunday to get their philately passport. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Karnataka Postal Circle officials recently announced the sale of 8,000 passports, including 3,500 in Bengaluru and 1,500 each in three districts. In July, when philately passports were on sale in Bengaluru, all 1,000 passports and 500 passports were sold in three districts in a day.

People waited in a long queue at Bengaluru General Post Office on Sunday to get their philately passport. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A senior official from Bengaluru GPO said, “We issued tokens from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM. Within 3 to 4 hours, all the passports were sold on Saturday (10 October 2026) and also on Sunday (11 October 2026). Some people who could not get the passport that we could not get, no longer disappointed their home pages on social media. GPO because the passports were sold out.”

These passes were sold on a first-come, first-served basis and only one pass was sold per person. Each passport has one hundred unique pictorial cancellations and is priced at ₹600.

The official said the fan base for the philatelic passport in Mysuru, Mangaluru and Belagavi is as big as Bengaluru. Even people from the surrounding neighborhoods queued up in these neighborhoods to buy passports, braving the large crowds. “All 4,500 passports were sold in these three districts within two days,” informed the official.

Yash, a travel enthusiast, said, “I waited in a queue for six hours to get this passport. Now I have another reason to travel across the state and explore places.” Pavan K, another traveller, said, “On Sunday (October 11, 2026) night, I slept on the trail and waited in line for eight hours to get my passport. My next task is to explore Karnataka.”

Published – 11 October 2026 14:12 IST