(Image source from: Little India)

India has added eight more foreign cities where international tourists, planning to travel to India, can give their biometrics for acquiring online visa.

According to PTI, Indian missions in Ottawa (Canada), Russian cities St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, Munich (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Oslo (Norway), Budapest (Hungary) and Zagreb (Croatia) will be equipped with biometric facilities to help foreign visitors to obtain e-visa.

With these additions, biometric enrollment under integrated online visa system is now accessible at 152 Indian missions. Overall, India has 178 missions overseas.

If international tourists with e-visas are able to avail biometric registration facilities in their cities, they can render their details in their country itself. With this facility, they don't have to provide their biometrics upon reaching India, which makes their entry to India hassle-free, the report added.

The news agency cited a Home minister official as saying that with this system, sharing and monitoring of visa data will be easier.

"Government of India introduced online e-Tourist Visa for 43 countries on 27.11.2014… Further, under the liberalization and simplification of Visa regime in India, e-Visa scheme for Tourist, Business and Medical purposes have been implemented w.e.f 01.04.2017," says website of Bureau of Immigration.

Indian e-visa facility is available to nationals of more than 160 countries.

Indian government's e-visa website says that "applicants of the eligible countries/territories may apply online visa for India minimum 4 days in advance of the date of arrival with a window of 120 days."

It adds that the e-visa will be valid for 60 days from the date of arrival in India. "Double entry is permitted on e-Tourist Visa and e-Business Visa. Triple entry will be permitted on e-Medical Visa."

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said earlier this month that India's electronic Tourist Visa (e-Visa) has seen a surge, with 1.69 million foreigners used the facility to travel to the country in 2017.

-Sowmya Sangam