Emirate Airlines, which is launching its six-flights-a-week Dubai-Ahmedabad non-stop service on October 28, announced on Thursday the formal opening of the Dubai Visa Processing Centre (DVPC) here to make travel easy for the people travelling to or transiting through Dubai.

This is the seventh DVPC of Emirates in India after Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. Emirates will be sponsoring its passengers to obtain a visa, which will significantly reduce the visa processing time from at least five working days to just two days as the travellers would no longer be required to locate a UAE-based sponsor.

Emirates has outsourced this procedure to VFS Global Services Private Ltd, Mumbai. An electronic visa will be granted to the eligible applicants within two working days. The Dubai visit visa for 59 days and the transit visa for 96 hours will cost Rs 2,900 and Rs 1,500 respectively, Mr Abdul Ghafoor Faridi, Head, DVPC, said.

The airlines is shortly launching its services from Dubai to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, Mr Shaz Peshimam, Sales Manager (Western India), told reporters here. Currently, Emirates has 77 flights to nine destinations in India. This would increase to 98 shortly, at par with its services to the United Kingdom.

In 2006-07, four lakh Indians visited Dubai for a minimum stay of 48 hours or more, according to figures available from hotels and other hospitality centres to Emirates.