Over 25 Lakh Foreign Tourists Visited India Via E-Visa In 2018; 400 Per Cent Jump In Just Three Years

According to recently released data, the home ministry approved e-Visa applications of over 25 lakh travellers in 2018, a five-fold jump from 2015, reports The Hindu BusinessLine (BL).

While the Bureau of Immigration under the Home Ministry had issued just 5.29 lakh visas in 2015, the number swelled to 25.15 lakh in only three years.

In a bid to further rationalise and simplify the Indian visa setup, the ministry also brought the number of main category visa from 26 to 21 while at the same time bringing the number of sub-categories of visa from 104 to 65.

As part of its digitisation programme, the government has reduced the number of regular or paper visas issued by Indian missions located across the world from 45 lakh to about 35 lakh in the intervening period between 2015 and 2018.

Adding to these reforms, the government in February further liberalised the e-Visa regime.

Now tourists from 166 countries can travel in India without having to go through an elaborate filing process.

The duration of stay in India of e-Tourist and e-Business Visas has been extended to a maximum of upto 1 Year with multiple entries subject to the stay stipulations. The government has even removed the existing restriction of allowing foreigner for a maximum of three times.