The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has awarded Kerala-based Alhind Tours & Travels a wide-ranging contract to manage passport renewals, visa applications, OCI cards and other consular services across the United Arab Emirates. The public notice, issued late on 24 April, ends BLS International’s 13-year tenure and signals a shake-up in the high-volume Gulf market. Alhind plans to open 16 centres—from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Fujairah—by 1 July, supported by an upgraded online appointment system and backend digitisation. With over four million Indians residing in the UAE, the switch could affect hundreds of thousands of applications per year, from blue-collar labourers renewing passports to executives seeking police-clearance certificates for global postings.
Meanwhile, applicants who prefer an online-first alternative can turn to VisaHQ; its India-dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/) offers streamlined passport renewal, visa and OCI services with door-to-door document collection, real-time tracking and expert support—useful reassurance while Alhind’s new centres ramp up.
Embassy officials said the winning bid—priced at AED 19 per transaction over government fees—was the most competitive among four shortlisted firms, including VFS Global. Alhind has started a Gulf-wide recruitment drive to staff biometric counters and call-centres. Employers that bulk-submit passport renewals for offshore staff should prepare for transitional teething issues, such as new appointment slots and document-checklists. Mobility managers are advised to schedule renewals well before the July hand-over and monitor embassy FAQs for any fee revisions. The UAE contract is Alhind’s largest overseas win to date and could set a template for future consular outsourcing tenders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where BLS and VFS currently dominate.