Union Home Ministry will hire 1,000 officials who will be deployed at immigration counters in Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport in a bid to end serpentine queues and ease travel woes. <br/><br/>The competent authority has given approval to the Bureau of Immigration for appointing 1,000 immigration assistants on a contractual basis, a home ministry official said today.<br/>Approval has also been given for the conversion of 350 posts from higher to lower grade, thereby giving more scope to<br/>recruit ex-servicemen from the Intelligence Bureau and Central Armed Police Force on contractual basis. <br/><br/>The deployment of additional personnel will augment manpower strength at immigration counters to enable the staff to provide professional and courteous service to travellers.<br/>There has been a 30 percent increase in international passengers at the IGI airport in the last two years with serpentine queues at immigration desks. <br/><br/>The government has a policy to encourage foreigners to come to India for tourism, medical tourism, business and studies and several initiatives have been taken to improve visa and immigration services to provide them with a pleasant experience, the official said. <br/><br/>The decisions are expected to substantially improve immigration services at IGI airport, facilitating not only foreigners coming to India but also Indians travelling abroad.