There is good news for tourists coming from faraway lands. The home ministry has revised the tourist visa guidelines following objections over the stringent tourist visa rules from several sectors.

Those who raised objections include the tourism ministry, industry stakeholders and diplomatic channels, reported the Mail Today.

As per the new guidelines tourists can now enter the country three times within the visa period. However, the cooling-off period of two months before a foreign tourist can be issued a new visa stays. But the restriction does not apply to foreign nationals coming on any other visa or People of Indian Origin (PIO) holding PIO or Overseas Citizenship of Indian cards.

The MHA issued the latest guidelines on April 26 asking the Indian missions abroad and the immigration authorities within the country for uniform implementation.

According to the earlier rules, there had to be a cooling-off period of two months before a tourist could re-enter India. The home ministry had last year formulated strict visa rules for tourists after the role of terror suspect David Coleman Headley in Mumbai attacks came to light.

However, under the new guidelines if a foreign national holding tourist visa after initial entry plans to visit another country in the neighbourhood and then wants to re-enter India within 60 days before finally exiting he can do so upto three times.