Calcutta has flunked the European visa test badly, with Germany now the city’s only direct gateway to the continent.

Among the four full consulate missions of European countries in Calcutta, only the office of the German consulate-general issues Schengen visas (providing access to 15 Schengen states in Europe).

With British Airways set to withdraw its Calcutta operations from April, Lufthansa having reduced frequency from five to three flights a week last October, and Air-France and Alitalia not touching down at all, Calcutta’s European connection looks tenuous.

The Italian consulate, which had opened a city visa office, is now referring applications to New Delhi, replicating the model adopted by the British deputy high commission in Calcutta since March 2008. The fledgling French mission in town is yet to open a visa section.

“We have suspended issuance of visas from Calcutta temporarily for a technical reason and all applications are being forwarded to Delhi, according to instructions from our ministry of foreign affairs,” Italian consul-general in Calcutta Bruno Campria told Metro.

Campria stressed this was only a short-term disruption necessitated by a “complete restructuring of services”, and hoped the city’s Italy visa window should reopen “latest by March”. But going by the response to its fast-track corporate visa scheme — a solitary application since June 2008 — the re-opening of the visa window looks remote.

“We saw the British deputy high commission move its visa processing section to Delhi last year, and now Italy has done the same. This is affecting traffic to Europe by 15 to 18 per cent and hurting the travel trade further in these trying times,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents’ Federation of India.

Applications for visas to the UK submitted on or after March 17, 2008 to the deputy high commission in Calcutta are processed at the British high commission in New Delhi. “It’s only a back-office streamlining exercise and nothing changes for the customer in Calcutta,” claimed a spokesperson for the British mission in town.

The travel trade argues that a lot changes for the customer in Calcutta. “This can be tedious for our clients since they often have to travel to Delhi for the interview/identification, incurring needless expenditure. Besides, travellers aren’t comfortable trusting couriers with their passports and we are losing business,” grumbled Punjabi.

The French are not yet off the blocks, with the newly formed office of the consulate-general planning to move into its permanent Alipore office sometime in April-May.

“We hope to open our visa section after that and by the middle of this year, Calcuttans will surely be able to obtain a French visa here itself,” assured French consul-general Jean Louis Rysto.

That leaves only the German consulate office at 1, Hastings Park Road, Alipore to bear much of the Europe visa load in town. “Yes, the burden on our office to process Schengen visas has increased at least 10 per cent over the past six months, since there’s no one else issuing a Schengen visa in Calcutta now,” said Udo Krippner, visa officer in the German consulate office.

“This visa scenario is further proof of Calcutta all but dropping out of the radar as a business destination,” said an industry chamber official.