Advance Passenger Information System in six international airports: Govt.

New Delhi, Nov.30 (ANI): Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said on Tuesday that Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) in Phase-I has been introduced at six International Airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Cochin.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Ramachandran stated that under APIS all airline operators flying into India are required to provide passengers particulars electronically in the prescribed format, within 15 minutes of their take off from the port outside India, in flat file to the concerned Immigration authorities in India.

In Phase-II, APIS is proposed to be implemented at all the 26 international airports in the country in a centralized mode to facilitate the operationalisation of APIS at all the international airports in the country.

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has undertaken the requisite action to put in place the network infrastructure.

APIS shall be implemented in a centralized mode across all the international airports during the financial year 2011-12.

The Government has introduced a "Tourist Visa-on-Arrival" scheme for citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore at four International airports in the country, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

The Stakeholder Ministries have been directed to improve the requisite infrastructure or facilities for successful implementation of Tourist Visa-on-Arrival scheme. (ANI)