Union Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma inaugurated a visa centre located at Shivaji Stadium metro station.
A visa centre was inaugurated by Union Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi on Wednesday which will serve 31 client governments including Australia, Belgium, Estonia and others, its service provider said.
The centre, located at Shivaji Stadium metro station, has 153 counters with capability to process over 12,000 applications per day, multiple bio-metric booths with plug-and-play capability for faster turnaround times, the service provider, VFS Global, added.
"This is the first time we have created a waiting area."
"It is for the first time that we have come up with the concept of the waiting area. We will take efforts to provide hassle-free services," Vinay Malhotra, the company's chief operating officer (South Asia) region, said.
Single collection area for all passports, one-stop-shop for visa-related value added services and "flexible" operating hours allowing extension during peak period have been included to add to the ease of visa applicants, Mr Malhotra said.
Besides Mr Sharma, the event was attended by senior diplomats of various client governments.