Bangladesh to appoint pvt firm in 4 Indian cities for visa service
UNB
Bangladesh is set to appoint a private outsourcing firm in four Indian cities to collect machine readable visa (MRV) applications from Indian citizens, reports UNB. The cities are New Delhi, Mumbai, Agartala and Kolkata.
However, the number of cities may be increased in the future, according to an official document obtained by the news agency.
Sources said the private firm will work as a visa-support service provider on behalf of Bangladesh mission. The firm will collect online visa applications in hardcopies along with passports, supporting documents and fees from the applicants. After scrutiny, it will send the visa applications, passports and other documents to Bangladeshi missions and then after issuance or rejection of visa by the missions, it will recollect those from the mission and return those to the applicants at the shortest possible time.
Recently, the Cabinet Purchase Committee approved a proposal of the Home Affairs Ministry to appoint the firm.
A joint venture of international and local firms-Consortium of BLS International-DOHATEC New Media, Bangladesh-obtained the job through a tender process for the next three years for which it will get $ 2.388 million (equivalent to
Tk 18.62 cr).
However, the outsourcing firm will charge $3.98 from each applicant for the service in addition to the existing visa fee.
Officials at the Department of Immigration and
Passport (DIP) said they have taken the move to facilitate prompt service to the visa applicants and also to properly deal with the processing.
They said each year Bangladesh missions in Indian cities receive about 200,000 visa applications from Indian citizens. But, the Bangladesh missions there are not well-equipped to provide prompt services to the visa seekers for lack of adequate manpower, they said.
To overcome this shortcoming, the government has decided to award the processing job to the private firm, said a top official at the DIP adding that this private firm will initially scrutinise and provide the visa service-support to the Bangladeshi missions in four Indian cities. But finally, the visa will be issued by Bangladesh Missions.
He said many countries in the world are now running their visa processing centres through private service providers.
He citied the examples of the USA, the UK, Canada and Thailand who are running their visa processing centres in Dhaka and other cities through private firms.
