Etourist Visa - India - Advice needed

I'm British by birth, with a original British passport. My wife is Indian by birth. We married in the UK just over two years ago but are now living in India. Our daughter was born here 3 months ago.

I am on a 1 year etourist visa, which expires on the 30'th of may this month.

I have planned to apply for the OCI card, as I should be eligible. But that can take months, which I don't have.

So in the meantime, I need to exit the country and apply for a new etourist visa, so that I can re-enter and apply for the OCI.

This is all planned for, as I'm flying to Thailand on the 30'th and returning on the 1st.

My current etourist visa was applied for through Ivisa.com from the UK. It cost over £100. But it arrived within 24 hours, which was great.

I'm a little strapped for cash this time round, and have decided to apply through Indias official government portal https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/ rather than the third party site. It's significantly cheaper, at around £40.

Here's the issue I'm having. I'm only now realising that India requires the person applying for an etourist visa to be outside of the country. They apparently don't allow it if I apply whilst I'm inside India.

So the dilemma is what to do. Do I gamble £40 and apply now, as it can take up to 5 days they claim to process the visa.

If it's rejected, Fine, I can figure something out maybe as I haven't flown yet nor has my current tourist visa expired.

If it's accepted, great, no issue.

Or, should I apply for it airside after being stamped as exiting the country on my passport on the 30th? My flight is 00:30am, and my return flight from thailand is 9pm on the 1st june. that gives them 2 and a half days roughly to process it whilst i'm abroad. But it's a gamble as my flight is non refundable (smart I know), and I could be stuck in Thailand.

Any suggestions? Has anyone applied for the etourist visa through the official government portal before? How long did it take? Were there any issues? Has anyone done a via run/hop before?

Note: I did fly to maldives for 3 days and back a few months ago to extend my current etourist visa (180 days/calender year etc). So I'm not new to the idea of visa hopping.

thank you