The officials of Bureau of Immigration (BoI) stated that E-Visa facility to issue a visa on arrival for travelers from 180 nations will be commenced from 2 October 2014.
In addition to seven airports in India, the E-visa facility will be introduced in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. BoI officials have already started the pre-arrangements for initiating the ETA facility. The Airports Authority of India had given extra area in the entrance portion of the international terminal.
BoI also needs extra manpower to speed up the new system. The center decided to initiate ETA facility at nine airports for tourists of 180 countries, excluding eight major countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Initially, the center has announced that the visa on arrival facility will be provided for 180 nations but the current directive from the Center stated that the E-visa facility will be introduced for only 140 countries. However, further clarifications from the headquarters on this aspect are still under consideration, the BoI officials added.
