Bhubaneswar, July 11: The state government today urged the Centre to introduce e-visa facilities at Biju Patnaik International Airport.

"This will encourage people from countries connected by the recently launched international connectivity and boost tourist footfall in Odisha," said chief minister Naveen Patnaik in a letter to Union minister for home affairs Rajnath Singh.

The Centre offers two options for travellers - traditional visa and e-visa. The e-visa is issued online.

Naveen told Singh that international flights had been operating from Bhubaneswar airport since the Malaysia-based AirAsia started operation between the Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur from April 26.

"We entered into an MoU with AirAsia in which the state government is providing viability gap funding for the international carrier for its operations from Bhubaneswar," said the chief minister.

"There has been an extremely good response to this international connectivity with Indian citizens travelling abroad through Bhubaneswar. Besides, a sizeable number of foreign tourist arrivals have been noticed," he said.

On May 26, the chief minister wrote to Union minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj, urging her to provide visa-on-arrival facilities in the city.

"To facilitate the travel of arriving tourists, it is requested that Bhubaneswar be included as a visa-on-arrival station for citizens of the eligible nations," Naveen had said in his letter to Swaraj.

AirAsia operates its flight four days of the week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday - from the state capital. Upbeat over the success of its operations, Naveen had proposed that AirAsia made the flight operate daily to and from Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lampur.

Sources said the state government had agreed to give a subsidy of around Rs 1.8 lakh for each trip to the airline if it transported a few passengers as mentioned in the MoU.

Earlier, the state government had reduced value added tax on aviation turbine fuel to zero per cent for direct international flights from the state.

The Centre had accorded international status to the Bhubaneswar airport in October 2013.

However, direct international flight operations could not start till recently as no international airlines came forward for the purpose.

An airport official said: "If the Centre agrees to issue e-visa to travellers, it will definitely result in more tourist footfall. We are prepared to handle more flights as well as more tourists."

Tour operator Sarita Nanda said: "If the e-visa facility is made available at Bhubaneswar airport, it will boost foreign tourist footfall in the state. Foreign travellers usually prefer the visa facility online."