Rajnath Singh in his visit to Bangladesh inaugurated the world’s largest state-of-the-art visa centre. This centre promises modern facilities and shorter waiting times for applicants. Rajnath Singh was accompanied by Asaduzzaman Khan formally opened the centre.
The visa curbs were promised by the Indian government to grant five-year multiple entry visas to Bangladeshis ‘below 13 years and above 65 years of age’ as well as the ‘war veterans of 1971 war’. This promise was ceremonially sanctioned when the Indian home minister handed over a five-year multiple entry tourist visa to Mohammad Nazrul Islam (freedom fighter category), while the Bangladesh home minister handed over a five-year multiple entry tourist visa to Amal Chandra Natta (senior citizen category). India is said to have 12 visa centres in Bangladesh, which is the highest number the former has in any country in the world.
The new integrated visa centre with all the facilities in place is supposed to issue on average 5,000 visas every day. The High Commission issued 9.76 lakh visas last in 2016 and today Bangladeshi people constitute the largest number of visitors to India. The existing e-token system for submission of Indian visa applications will simultaneously be withdrawn from July 15.
The consolidation of visa application services and the provision of amenities, reflect the continuing efforts of the High Commission of India, in collaboration with its outsourced partners like the State Bank of India, to further streamline the Indian visa application process and strengthen people-to-people contacts between India and Bangladesh.
On 13th July, Singh tweeted that India and Bangladesh have made “notable progress in transforming our land and maritime boundaries into zones of peace and tranquility”.
This visit to Bangladesh is supposed to strengthen India’s relationship further with its neighbour. India’s ambitious policy of improving most of its relationships with the south Asian countries began with the Visa centre. Several issues covering, border security, terrorism, economy and other and travel arrangements are supposed to be discussed in the upcoming meetings by the representatives of both the nations.