New Delhi

Seven more airports, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi and Ahmedabad in his home state, have been declared as entry points along with the existing nine where citizens from eligible countries can land with an e-tourist visa.

The government has also extended e-tourist visa facility to 36 more countries from August 15, taking the total number of countries under the scheme upto 113.

Besides Varanasi and Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Amritsar, Gaya, Lucknow and Trichy have been declared as entry points with e-tourist visa, an official statement said.

The existing nine airports where one can land with an e-tourist visa are Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.

As promised by the Prime Minister, India recently rolled out e-tourist visa facility to Chinese nationals.

Among the countries that will benefit from the fresh extension of e-tourist visa are the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Malaysia, Tanzania and Argentina.

Under the e-visa scheme, an applicant receives an email authorising him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorisation. On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.

Since the launch of the scheme on November 27, 2014, more than two lakh e-tourist visas have been issued till now.

It is expected that this substantial addition of countries and airports will give a big boost to tourism industry in the country, the statement said.

PTI

(More details on e-visa here: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html )