Now, French Consulate in Bangalore to issue visas

Focus will be on scientific exchange, trade and economic relations

French Minister for Research Valerie Pecresse will open the new premises of her country’s Consulate General at Palace Road in Vasanth Nagar on Saturday. The opening ceremony will coincide with French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s visit to the city. Pecresse is one of the seven French ministers accompanying Sarkozy on his four-day visit to India.

Though the French President will start his visit with a few hours stay in Bangalore on Saturday, he will not attend the opening of the Consulate General. He will instead leave for Agra after a visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Though the French Consulate General in Bangalore was set up in October 2008, it has not been issuing visas and has been functioning from Alliances Françaises at Miller’s Tank Bund Road.

The French Consulate General in Mumbai has been issuing visas to people from Karnataka, who want to visit France.

The French Consulate General in Bangalore is being provided with necessary infrastructure to issue visas and will start doing so to people of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh after moving to the new building. “In a few weeks, it will be fully operational and be able to deliver visas,” Consul General Dominique Causse told Deccan Herald.

“In Bangalore, the focus of the consulate general is on scientific exchanges, students exchanges, trade, and economic relations between India and France,” he added.

Pecresse will also open a full-fledged French Consulate General in Kolkata on Sunday.

Sarkozy visit

Sarkozy would visit ISRO after landing in Bangalore on Saturday. He would see the Indo-French Megha-Tropiques Satellite, which is being jointly developed by ISRO and Centre National d’Études Spatiales of France for atmospheric research. The data collected by the satellite will help study the water cycle contribution to the climate dynamic in the tropical atmosphere and the processes linked to the tropical convection.

The French President and his wife Carla Bruni Sarkozy would leave for Agra later on the same day for a private visit. They will visit the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri on Sunday before travelling to Delhi in the evening.