File image used for representative purpose.

NEW DELHI: India has granted visa-on-arrival facility to the citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an aim to enhance people-to-people contacts and trade relations, officials said on Sunday.

The visa-on-arrival facility for the nationals of the UAE came into effect from Saturday. It will be available for a period of up to 60 days with double entry for business, tourism, conference and medical purposes, a government official said.

This facility is aimed at further strengthening people to people contacts and trade relations as well as strategic ties between the two countries.

The international airports where the facility will be available are in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The visa-on-arrival will be available only to those UAE nationals who have earlier obtained an e-Visa or a normal paper visa for India, irrespective of whether the person actually visited India or not.

Those UAE nationals visiting India for the first time are advised to apply for e-Visa or a normal paper visa, another official said.

For detailed information, one can visit https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/visa-on-arrival.

Japan and South Korea are the other two countries whose citizens are offered the visa-on-arrival facility by India.

Citizens of around 170 countries are given e-Visa facility .

