India witnessed 421 percent rise in tourist arrival after implementing new visa scheme

February 19, 2015
India observes 421 percent surge in tourist arrival with new visa scheme

Indian Home Minister, Rajnath Singh stated that India has witnessed 421.6 percent increase in number of tourists in December after implementing an accelerated visa clearance process. 

Speaking at a meeting, Singh said that the introduction of the Visa Enabled by ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) and IVFRT (Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration and Tracking) project has made it easy to grant 65,000 visas within 75 days and as of now 1,000 travel documents on an average are being granted each day.     

Notably, over 14000 tourist visas- on-arrival were granted in December 2014, a huge increase when compared to the same period previous year. 

Reportedly, the introduction of IVFRT and ETA made it possible for potential travelers to apply for an Indian visa from their place without visiting the Indian Mission and pay the visa fee online.      

Sources stated that once approved, applicants will get an email permitting them to travel to India. Upon arrival, the visitor has to show the authorization to the authorities of immigration who would then stamp the entry to the country. 

The Home Minister told the members that the IVFRT is one of the Mission Mode Project carried out by the Home Ministry under the National e-Governance Plan. The project oversees 674 Foreigners Registration Offices, 178 Indian missions abroad, 83 Immigration Check Posts and 13 Foreigners Regional Registration Offices in the country. 

Singh stated that as of now the project has been executed in 13 FRROs, 81 ICPs, 155 Indian missions abroad, 450 FROs, covering 85 percent of the overseas nationals coming to India. 

Sources stated that the execution of the project in remaining 23 Indian missions abroad, installation of biometrics software in 224 FROs, 116 Indian missions abroad and implementation of e-gates at airports will be done by March 2017.

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