As the Covid-19 cases continue to decline across the country, the central government is considering resuming tourist visas very soon, in a bid to boost the economy. The report citing sources close to the matter confirmed the matter.
A senior MHA official confirmed that things are formalized and a meeting has been called in the Ministry of Home Affairs that will be chaired by the Home Secretary on Thursday to discuss plans to resume tourist visas.
The official said that it’ll be done in a phased manner and as per the feasibility, it’ll be open to all. The Government of India is probably going to permit only vaccinated people to apply for tourist visas.
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It must be noted that tourist visas are suspended since March 2020, from the day the first lockdown was announced.
Later, several categories of visas like business, employment, and others were exempted but tourist visas remained suspended. Many Gulf countries have resumed tourist visas.
Before the suspension of tourist visas, around 7-8 lakh tourists used to come to India every month. India recorded 27,176 new Covid-19 cases and 284 deaths in the last 24 hours on Wednesday.
The active cases have come all the way down to 3.51 lakh. less than 50,000 daily cases are reported for 80 consecutive days now. Covid-19 has severely affected the tourism industry, resulting in job losses and shutdowns of hotels and restaurants.
(With Inputs From ANI)
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