Milestone for e-governance: Govt issues 22,000 online visas in one month

The provision for online visas launched by the government on 27 November has proved to be a huge success, with the number of online visas issued during one month was almost equal to the number of visas on arrival (VoAs) issued in the last 11 months. [caption id=“attachment_2025881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Since the launch of visa-on-arrival was enabled by electronic travel authorization (ETA), 22,000 online visas have been issued by the government till 31 December whereas the number of vias on arrival issued from January to November 2014 was 24,963, according to this report in The Times of India. The report added that with 17,594 VoAs issued during the same period in 2013, the number of VoAs issued increased by 41.9 percent. Moreover, during January-November, a total of 6.8 lakh visitors came - the highest till November in any year during the last decade. With the introduction of ETA for 43 countries including the US, Israel, Germany and Russia, the ministry aims to extend this facility to almost 150 countries in phases. The foreign exchange earnings from tourism in this period crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark with a growth of 12.1 per cent over the earnings of the same period last year. Aiming to expand the tourism horizon, the ministry has earmarked developing five new tourist circuits around specific themes - Ganga circuit, Krishna circuit, Buddha circuit, North East circuit and Kerala circuit under the Rs 500 crore allocation in the Budget this year. Moreover, in order to facilitate hassle-free entry of tourists to monuments, e-ticketing for Taj Mahal and Humayun Tomb were launched on a pilot basis. India was ranked 76th in the visa restrictions index compiled by the firm Henley and Partners earlier this year, according to the TOI report. However, e-visas are expected to be a major boost for the industry. (With inputs from PTI)