Minutes of the Meeting to Examine Modalities of Setting up Facilitation Counter at Airports for Visitors coming on e-Medical Visa

The meeting to discuss modalities of setting up of facilitation counter at major Airports for e-Medical Visa holders was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Tourism) on 25th April 2017 in Transport Bhawan, New Delhi. The list of participants is at annexure.

2. The Regional Directors of the Eastern and Northern Region, India Tourism and representative of Regional Director (South) mentioned that at present there are no India Tourism counters in any of the airports in the metros. However, efforts are being made to get counter space at the airports for dissemination of information and other   initiatives of the Ministry like distribution of free-SIM card etc. Counter space could be taken for the facilitation counter for Medical Tourists also along with this.

3.Joint Secretary (Tourism) opined that although Ministry of Tourism could consider hiring of space at the airports, the Ministry of Tourism does not have the expertise nor the human resources for manning the counters on a 24x7x365 basis which is the main requirement. As regards issue of having translation services, the same could be solved by connecting the counters to the 1363 Infoline of the Ministry of Tourism where round the clock information services are available in 12 languages. It was suggested that the industry should come forward as a body to deploy the trained personnel.

4. The President, Indian Medical Association (IMA) offered that the IMA could take the lead by providing the trained personnel for manning the facilitation counter in collaboration with NABH who would provide the training. It was also suggested that IMA could form a transparent fund which would be used to sustain the provision of personnel for the counter.

5. The suggestion was accepted and it was decided that IMA would work out the modalities of provision of trained personnel for manning the counters for facilitation of medical tourists at the airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and revert to the Ministry of Tourism on an urgent basis. The Ministry of Tourism would simultaneously work with the airport authorities through India Tourism offices in these cities for hiring of space and establishing of the counter with a telephone link to the Incredible India Info-Help-Line for assistance while dealing with persons with language services.

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PARTICIPANTS OF THE MEETING HELD ON 25.04.2017

1.Shri Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism

2.Shri Pramod Kumar, Director, Min.of Home Affairs

3.Smt Bindu Tewari, Director, Min. of Health and Family Welfare

4.Smt Neela Lad, Dy Director General, Ministry of Tourism

5.Shri M M Sadana, Regional Director (N), Ministry of Tourism

6.Shri J P Shaw, Regional Director (E), Ministry of Tourism

7.Dr Sanjay Kumar, Sr CMO (IH), Min. of Health and Family Welfare

8.Shri A Seetharaman, Asst Director, Indiatourism Chennai

9.Dr K K Agarwal, President, IMA

10.Dr R N Tandon, Secretary, IMA

11.Shri Ramkumar Vijayan, Asst Director, Ministry of Tourism