MOVE AIMED AT HELPING THE NEEDS OF GROWING INDIAN WORKERS IN NORTHERN EMIRATES
DUBAI, Jan 27 – Indian ambassador to the UAE TP Seetharam said the Indian government is considering opening the second Indian consulate in the UAE in one of the Northern Emirates. Indian expatriates in the Northern emirates may get an additional consulate for them, it has emerged, Khaleej Times reported.
Seetharam said the Indian government is considering opening the second Indian consulate in the UAE in one of the Northern Emirates after the UAE government reciprocated the permission to open a UAE consulate in the Indian state of Kerala.
However, the plan is not likely to materialize immediately due to budget constraints, he added.
In 2011, the UAE embassy in New Delhi had showed interest in establishing a consulate in Kerala. Recent reports from India said the consulate would open in the state’s capital Thiruvananthapuram in three months.
The mission is expected to help ease documentation work, currently done from the UAE consulate in Mumbai, apart from boosting trade and tourism.
According to Seetharam, the agreement for opening the consulate has a reciprocal approach and the Indian government could open one more consulate here.
The envoy said the mission would seek to consult the community for deciding the location.
“It has to be in a central location where there is a large number of Indians and it cannot be too close to the existing consulate (in Dubai),” he told Khaleej Times.
However, he said it was not possible to put a time frame for the proposal since the Indian missions had budgetary constraints due to the austerity measures being taken by the Indian Government. “It will not be done immediately anyway.”
