The Indian Embassy in the UAE has closed four of its consular application centres from Thursday, citing "administrative reasons." The centres affected are Musaffah (Abu Dhabi), Al Reem (Abu Dhabi), Dubai Investment Park-I (Dubai), and Sharjah Al Majaz (Sharjah).
The move follows the lengthy court battle over the outsourcing of consular, passport, and visa (CPV) services, which was handed over to Alhind after the contract term of BLS International and SGIVS Global (popularly known as IVS) ended. Since then, the Indian mission has been directly handling the services, the first time in 17 years. However, Alhind eventually began operating its 16 centres from July 22, following interim permission from the Supreme Court.
Last month, the Indian Embassy in the UAE issued a fresh tender for outsourcing its passport services, and the deadline for submitting new bids is October 26.
With the closure of four centres, the total number of operational centres has dropped from 16 to 12.
The 12 remaining ICACs, operated by Alhind Tours & Travels, continue to operate as normal. These include the large Bur Dubai facility, which has 45 counters and is designed to reduce wait times.
Meanwhile, Alhind has issued a new service advisory after the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi announced the closure of four Indian Consular Application Centres (ICACs) in the UAE. It confirmed that passport delivery counters will remain available at three of them. “Passport delivery will be available at three of the closed centres: Musaffah in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Investment Park (DIP) in Dubai, and Al Majaz in Sharjah,” it said.
Submission counters, however, will not operate at any of the four closed centres.
