Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Travelers waiting at immigration counters at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on July 14, 2010.

The program started recently, to ease the red tape for visiting India, has been deemed successful enough to be worthy of expansion; and then some. Thanks to India Ink for pointing out this news, which will be welcome news to Raxa Collective’s many visitors from outside India:

India said it would seek to expand its visa-on-arrival program to tourists from 180 countries, including the United States and China, to encourage more people to visit the country.

Currently, only citizens of 11 countries can receive Indian visas on arrival, which costs $60 per passenger, including children, and is valid for 30 days.

Rajeev Shukla, minister for planning and parliamentary affairs, told reporters Wednesday evening in Delhi that it would take about five or six months to set up the infrastructure to process the additional visas on arrival. “We hope to implement this from the next tourist season beginning October,” Mr. Shukla said.

Read the whole story here,