e-Visa facility to be implemented at 8 airports: Jaitley

The e-Visa facility will be implemented at eight major airports of the country but will not be extended to the airports where security concerns are involved, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

"Wherever there is security reason, there we will not do it but it will be implemented at all eight major eight airports of the country," he said at an interaction with civil society in Srinagar.

Responding to questions, the Minister said the e-Visa facility, which was started for nationals of 32 countries, will be extended to more countries in future.

"We have started e-Visa where people get visa on the internet and the tourists will get information at the airport. They do not need to visit any Indian embassy. We are going to increase it to cover more countries," he said.

Jaitley said tourism is a big priority for the central goverment as it focusses on increasing the tourist arrivals in the country.

"Away from Kashmir, let us look at entire India. It has a long sea coast, largest peninsula. Mountains are there, resorts, religious tourism are there, cultural tourism is there. Only six to seven million tourists come to India.

"City states like Singapore, Honk Kong or Dubai city get 10-time more tourists. We are going to increase tourism across the country," he added.