Archana Sharma – New Delhi
As part of a major initiative taken by the new government in the tourism sector, Dr Mahesh Sharma, minister of state (I/C), tourism and culture and minister of state for civil aviation and Rajnath Singh, union home minister recently launched the Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVoA) enabled with Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) facility for 43 countries at the Ashok hotel in New Delhi. “The country has now opened itself to global destinations and it is important that we are able to present a clean, safe and hospitable environment for foreign travellers,” stated Dr Sharma. People travelling to India will be now be able to avail this facility at nine airports in the country through a simplified digitised process via the ETA website—https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html. The applications received in real time will be processed at 40 counters set up by the immigration department and TVoA will be issued for eligible applicants within 72 hours of submitting the applications.
The 43 countries eligible for TVoA are Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, USA, Vanuatu, Vietnam. The immigration department has set up 72 dedicated counters at nine airports—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Goa – to facilitate the TVoA travellers. These travellers will be able to depart from any international airport in the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also expanded the activities that a visitor who avail this facility can undertake, besides normal sightseeing, recreation, visiting family and friends, he would be able to do casual business meetings, and short-term medical treatments.
Applauding this initiative, Subhash Goyal, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) stated that such a scheme was necessary and has been required for over 20 years now and they have been lobbying for this programme since a long time.