Port Blair, October 16: The Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) project developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, is going to be used extensively for the Union Ministry of Tourism’s plan to provide Visa on Arrival facility.
Tourists from 28 countries via 9 major air ports across India would be extended the facility from this month end, Dr Shefali S Dash, Deputy Director General of the NIC in New Delhi has said in a seminar in Port Blair today. She said that the software has been developed under the Union Government’s Mission Mode Projects. Of the 9 such mission mode projects, this is the most complex one in terms of the number of stakeholders involved and the geographical stretch. The stakeholders include the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Tourism and Finance and organizations like the emigration Offices, state level Home Departments, the Police, District Administrations, Foreigners
Registration Offices etc.
At present, the Visa on Arrival scheme is in force for 12 countries via four airports. It has been a laborious process which took long hours. However, with the introduction of the IVFRT project three years back, the processing time came down to eight minutes, since the application for Visa on Arrival submitted electronically up to 30 days in advance could be scrutinized by different agencies facilitated by computer servers. All supporting documents could also be uploaded by the applicants during their submission of application. By the time the eligible tourists arrive, they would have to just enter their biometric credentials to get the visa. Through the software, the application of the visitors to either convert the visa or extend it could also easily be processed. Moreover, the usual tracking of their movements would also be made simpler by the Mission Mode Project.
The Inspector General of Police, Port Blair, Mr Sanjay Singh said that the immigration officials in the Union Territory have been sensitized to receive the visitors courteously as they are the first point of the tourists’ human interaction which helps form the first impression. He expressed satisfaction in the functioning of the Foreigners Registration officials. This year so far, many foreign tourists have arrived in the Islands and no complaints have been received from any quarters, he informed. Three cases of Bangladeshis who tried to come to the Islands without valid documents were apprehended, he said and added that the authorities are continuously keeping vigil. The IVFRT scheme of the NIC is based on internet, which is a stumbling block in the Islands due to poor speed. Hover, he expressed hope that the project would gain wider acceptance when bandwidth gets augmented in the days to come. (PIB)
