Visa on Arrival extended to Hyderabad airport

Hyderabad: The central government has extended Visa-On-Arrival facility to international passengers travelling through Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad managed by the GMR Group.

Visitors from 11 countries will be eligible to get a VoA from May 31 at RGIA, a GMR press release said. The Centre had introduced an Indian tourist VoA scheme on January 1, 2010 at certain airports which was initiated for citizens of five countries. Subsequently, a year later, the facility was extended to a total of 11 countries. The Tourist Visa on Arrival with a maximum validity of 30 days with single entry facility shall be granted by the Immigration officers at RGIA to citizens of 11 countries viz Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia, it said. SGK Kishore, CEO-GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) said, the introduction of this VoA scheme will facilitate enhanced tourism opportunities to India and specifically Hyderabad and the State of Andhra Pradesh. "This initiative by the Government of India will position RGIA as a preferred point of entry for foreign tourists planning to visit India," Kishore said. The introduction of Visa on Arrival augurs well with RGIA`s mission to transform itself into South and Central India`s Gateway and Hub of Choice, the release said. The airport has been consistently raising its standards, making significant progress since its inception. Recently, the Airport was ranked No. 2 by the Airport Council International (ACI) in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey in the 5-15 million passengers per annum (mppa) category, with a score of 4.71 for 2012, just trailing the first rank by 0.004 points, it added. PTI