In a move that can increase foreign tourist inflow in India several folds, the union home ministry has given green signal to tourism ministry's proposal to grant tourist visa on arrival (TVOA) to four countries – France, Spain, Italy and UK. Besides these countries, China that has long been on the watch list countries along with Pakistan and Bangladesh, is also being considered favourably for grant of visa on arrival facility.Why special preference to China?Highly placed sources said that union home ministry has been asked to sort out the glitches and work out formula soon so that prime minister could offer it as a major confidence building initiative to China during his visit in May. The process for extending visa on arrival to countries was started by the previous Congress led UPA regime and finding merit in it, the BJP led NDA government is ready to take it forward. In his budget speech last month, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the privilege will be extended to 150 countries which will be added in phases.Tourists from how many countries can avail this facility in India?"With visa on arrival facility extending to these five countries, the total number such favoured countries will reach 48. It has already impacted very positively on tourist traffic and is expected to increase it many folds in coming years once we reach our aim of extending visa on arrival facility to 150 countries," said an official in the tourism ministry. Sources say that tourist traffic from USA has increased several folds after India extended the facility last year coinciding it with prime minister Narendra Modi's speech at Madison Square.What is welcome card?The government is actively considering the proposal to distribute welcome cards at the airports to passengers coming under TVOA facility besides extending some other facilities to make the tourists' experience less cumbersome and more pleasant. Rajnath Singh has assured sending instructions to Bureau of Immigration for taking urgent necessary action in this regard.Committee to resolve visa issuesRajnath Singh also approved a Committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Foreigners) with three joint secretaries from ministries of home, tourism and civil aviation as members. This committee will meet periodically and resolve issues concerning visa facilitation and tourism promotion.

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Tourism minister Mahesh Sharma who got an in principal approval from home minister Rajnath Singh said, the announcement of extending the privilege will be made within 10 days.