Foreign travellers arriving on e-tourist visas in India will be granted pre-loaded SIM cards with talk time and data at 12 major airports of the country as part of the welcome kit.
E-tourist visa is available to residents of 161 countries. The welcome packet includes a "dos and don'ts" list, maps, and emergency contact information.
The ready-to-call SIM cards will be available at airports in Panjim, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and Varanasi to start with.
The Ministry of Home Affairs will issue the SIM cards through BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), a state-owned telecommunications company that's the sixth-largest mobile service provider in the country. The SIM card will be valid for 30 days. The talk time and data are available for domestic calls and use in India only.
"Foreign tourists face problems while procuring a SIM card, making them dependent on telephone booths. The cards can be recharged as and when required and will be functional from the moment they step out of the airport," Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi said.
Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma proposed the project on the World Tourism Day on September 27. The service has been started from December 26. The move is aimed at projecting India as a global tourist destination among foreign travellers as well as addressing the security concerns by equipping the tourists with mobile phones to make calls in case of any distress, an official said.
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