PANJIM: The Indian High Commission in London on Monday announced the reinstating of the electronic visa (e-visa) for United Kingdom travellers. The tweak in the e-visa rules by India had put a stop to the visas of travellers to India.
The Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, in a video statement announced that the service will be available “forthwith” and High Commission officials in London confirmed that travellers can start applying for e-visas to India from this week. It said that the system upgrade process is underway and the Indian visa website will soon be ready to receive applications for e-visas.
“The big news today is that we are rolling out e-visas once again,” Doraiswami announced in a video posted on Twitter.
“This should enable friends from the UK to travel far more easily to India,” he said.
Sources informed that the e-visas issue was discussed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak, during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Indonesia last month.
With the e-visa rule tweak the charter tourism sector of Goa was seeing a major setback this tourism season. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte had taken up the issue with the Home Minister Amit Shah earlier in October. The reinstatement of e-visa facilities has brought a cheer among tourism stakeholders of Goa.