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Thursday 2 November 2017




Government to set up 55 additional immigration counters at IGI airport







NEW DELHI: In a bid to bring down long queues at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport during peak hours, the home ministry has decided to set up 55 additional immigration counters by January 2018. Out of which, 20 counters will be opened by November-end.


The new counters, 20 of which will be in the departure area and 35 for foreigners arriving on electronic visa, are expected to be set up by January 2018, taking the total number of immigration kiosks at the IGI airport to 130. Around 1,800 personnel will be brought in to man the additional counters.

A meeting chaired by Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba on Wednesday in presence of senior officers of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) and Bureau of Immigration (BOI) cleared 20 new immigration counters in 'departure' areas of the airport. While 10 of these counters will be set up by November 20, an equal number of counters will be added by January 2018.

To facilitate foreigners arriving on electronic visas, 10 e-visa counters will be made functional by November 30, 2017. Another 25 e-visa counters will come up by January next year. "This will facilitate foreigners availing (of) electronic visa which is becoming increasingly popular," said a home ministry official.


The aforesaid decisions were taken following media reports pointing out lengthy queues and long waiting time at the airport. Taking cognisance of the situation, senior officers of the home ministry and BOI had visited the airport for an on-the-spot assessment
Based on feedback from the team, the home secretary held a meeting with officers of BOI, DIAL and National Informatics Centre on Wednesday. The meeting discussed various capacity addition measures such as technological upgradation, provision of modern equipment, creation of additional space for counters, increasing manpower, etc.


While DIAL will provide additional space for the 20 immigration counters, BOI will provide manpower, computers, passport reading machines, web cameras etc to make them functional.