he e-tourist visa facility is likely to be implemented at the Tiruchi international airport from Independence Day.
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The headquarters of Bureau of Immigration (BoI), coming under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has conveyed this to the immigration unit at Tiruchi airport which is one of the seven non-metro airports where the facility is being implemented.
Airport sources said the BoI has asked the immigration unit at Tiruchi airport regarding its readiness to launch the facility on the Independence Day. The immigration unit here has conveyed to BoI headquarters that required facilities have been put in place and that it is ready.
The sources said dedicated counters and equipment, including passport readers, bio-metric capture machines, web cameras and computers have been installed and connectivity provided by the National Informatics Centre.
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At the first floor
The Airports Authority of India provided exclusive space at the first floor of the terminal building for the immigration personnel to execute the facility for which they had undergone training in Chennai.
Besides Tiruchi, the other airports included under the e-tourist visa scheme are Amritsar, Gaya, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Varanasi.
The facility is in vogue in nine major airports in the country.
A Government of India website www.indianvisaonline.gov.in has flashed a message that e-tourist visa facility is being extended to 36 more countries and seven more Indian airports (including Tiruchi) from August 15, 2015.” The facility is being introduced by the Centre to give a fillip to tourism in the country.
Tiruchi airport from where flights were being operated daily to Colombo, Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai every day witnessed a spike in overseas passengers’ movement in the last financial year. It crossed the one million mark in 2014-15.
Countries added under the e-tourist visa scheme include Belgium, Cuba, Ireland, Malaysia, Spain, Portugal, Seychelles, Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mongolia, and Malta. With the inclusion of more countries, the total number of nations brought under the scheme would rise to 113 now.
The number of nations brought under the e-tourist visa facility now stands at 113