NEW DELHI: After the first round of unsuccessful attempt, the Union tourism ministry is hoping to finalise an agency to operate an integrated system to facilitate tourists through helpline and information counters at nine airports later this month.
The agency will also run a chatbots service linked to the ‘Incredible India’ website and handle complaints of tourists coming through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring system. Officials in the know said the previous tender for the same was ‘discharged’ due to the lack of ‘effective competition’.
“Earlier, only one bidder participated hence the tendering process had to be curtailed. We don’t know the exact reasons for that unexpected response. We have got bids from five companies and hopefully, we will sail through this time. Until we finalise the tender, the services will be managed by the incumbent agency,” said an official.
The helpline service and information counter is available round the clock at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports for international and domestic travellers. The facility at Patna and Guwahati is operational from 9 am to 6 pm. The helpline in Varanasi works from 8.30 am to 6 pm. Similar tourist facilitation counters and services will soon be available at Ahmedabad airport.
Besides English and Hindi, executives at information counters can converse in foreign languages to deal with tourists from abroad. The helpline calling agents will be conversant with foreign languages including Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.