Delhi
Travelling to India will be made easy once the electronic travel authorisation to visit the country becomes operational, Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan said on April 10
In a major step aimed at boosting tourism, government has already decided in principle to give the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to travellers from 180 countries starting this October. Barring the eight prior reference countries, which includesPakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria andSri Lanka, government has decided to give e-visa to all the 180 countries.
During the past year, India had considerably relaxed its visa regime and expanded the Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) scheme, Dewan said at a FICCI event here. Currently VoA scheme is available for 11 countries includingJapan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore. The extension of VoA and electronic travel authorisation to citizens of 180 countries will be implemented initially at nine airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Goa and Trivandrum. Dewan said a dedicated helpline for inbound tourists will be launched in a year. “Tourism Infoline in 12 languages will become operational in about a year,” he said.
Read the full report here, Business Standard
