Dedicated counters offering tourist visa-on-arrival facility at the Gaya international airport is set to make things smoother for pilgrims and tourists visiting Bodhgaya from several countries shortly.

Two personnel from Thailand have already been posted in Bodhgaya though the visa-on-arrival facility is yet to be made available here. At present, they are just facilitating devotees and the tourists visiting Bodhgaya. British high commission officials also visited Bodhgaya in November. They have identified space for opening an office on the premises of Siddharth Vihara alongside the office of the state tourism department.

Gaya district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal confirmed that two personnel from Thailand have arrived in Bodhgaya a few days ago. 'At present, the duo are facilitating devotees and the tourists visiting Bodhgaya,' the district magistrate said. He also confirmed the visit of British high commission officials to Bodhgaya. 'The tourist visa-on-arrival facility would be extremely convenient for the tourists visiting Bodhgaya, which would also help in the increase of the inflow of tourists,' Agarwal said.

As far as flight connectivity is concerned, scheduled flights are operated from Colombo (Sri Lanka), Bangkok (Thailand), Paro (Bhutan), Yangon and Mandalay (both in Myanmar) to the Gaya international airport during the tourist season that begins in October and ends in February. In the days to come, some more international flights are likely to be operated to and from Bodhgaya airport.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nyuyen Tan Dung, during his visit to Bodhgaya on October 27 this year, had also said while meeting chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and the state tourism minister, Javed Iqbal Ansari, that efforts would be made to start flight operations to Gaya airport from Hanoi (Vietnam).

As the aircraft carrying devotees and tourists land directly at Gaya airport after taking off from the airport of the respective country, if tourist visa-on-arrival facility is launched at Gaya airport, it would be of great help to the foreign visitors.

At present, tourist visa-on-arrival facility is available at only nine airports of the country - Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.

The tourist visa-on-arrival facility was launched by the Union government in January 2010 to attract more foreign tourists to India. According to the information available on the website of the Union tourism department, www.tourism.gov.in, there has been around 59.7 per cent growth in the inflow of foreign tourists since the tourist visa-on-arrival facility was launched in the country.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday said in Gaya he would write to the Union home minister to start visa-on-arrival facility at the Gaya airport for tourists from Myanmar. 'When I had visited Myanmar, people requested me to start tourist visa-on-arrival facility at the Gaya international airport for pilgrims and tourists visiting Bodhgaya. A large number of tourists visit Bodhgaya from Myanmar and direct flights from there to Gaya airport exist,' Modi said.