Indian High Commission in Dhaka on Saturday organised a special visa camp for family members of serving and retired Armed Forces personnel at Sena Malancha of Dhaka Cantonment.

The visa camp was arranged in partnership with the Armed Forces Division, Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Principal Staff Officer, Armed Forces Division Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman jointly inaugurated the visa camp.

The High Commission of India has taken a number of initiatives in recent months to streamline, liberalise and ease the process of securing Indian visas, reports UNB.

A visa camp was organised ahead of the Eid vacations in the month of June last year, during which more than 55,000 tourist visas were issued to Bangladesh nationals, according to Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

A similar camp was organised for students in October, 2016 with the participation of over 2000 students.

To simplify the visa process, anyone with a confirmed journey ticket by air, road, rail can submit their visa application at 9 Indian Visa Application Centres (IVACs) without an appointment date under the walk-in tourist visa scheme; the requirement of appointment date for senior citizens and minors has been waived off; all personnel over 65 years of age have been made eligible for a five years visa; women are given priority access.

IVAC Mirpur is kept open exclusively on Saturdays for women applicants and their immediate family members; and dependent family members of diplomats.

Officials can submit their tourist visa application forms at IVAC Uttara on a walk-in basis.

These measures are aimed at strengthening people-to-people contacts between India and Bangladesh, said the High Commission.