Visa on arrival for foreigners at Bangalore airport

Foreign nationals from 11 countries will be issued visas on arrival at the Bangalore international airport starting Saturday, officials said.

"Visa with 30-days validity will be stamped on the foreigners' passport soon after they land at the airport and pay $60 fee as its charges. The visa can be extended by a month after due diligence by the immigration authority," an airport official told IANS.

The facility will be initially available to people from Cambodia, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Luxembourg, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam on arrival with a passport with at least six-month validity.

"The visa on arrival policy is to encourage visitors from these countries to travel to India even at a short notice, for sightseeing, leisure holiday, wellness and short business work," the official said.

The airport operator BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Ltd) has made spacious arrangements at the international arrival lounge to issue the on-arrival visas, with separate seating facility and help desks in the immigration area.

"We are in the process of setting up separate counters for foreign exchange and taking photographs of visitors in compliance with the immigration rules and regulations," the official added.

To ensure the visitors leave the city on expiry of the visa, they will have to produce a copy of the return ticket, hotel confirmation in the city or state and local contact, if any.

As the third busiest airport in the country after Mumbai and New Delhi, Bangalore daily handles about 400 passenger and cargo flights of domestic and international airlines.

Located about 40 km from this tech hub, at Devanahalli off national highway 7, the greenfield airport was built in 2008 by the BIAL consortium under the public-private partnership mode with a capacity to handle 12 million passengers per annum.

Having reached the capacity, the Terminal-1 is being expanded this year to accommodate about 16 million passengers.