New Delhi: There are stringent conditions and restrictions in place for foreigners who wish to visit India’s north-eastern states.
Now, the Indian government has decided to considerably ease those restrictions.
Foreigners need Restricted Area Permit (RAP) and Protected Area Permit (PAP) for travel to specific parts of border states like Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
RAP and PAP used to be very difficult to obtain for foreign passport holders.
But the conditions have now been eased a lot with very few rejections, Union Ministry of Tourism’s Regional Director in North-East Anil Oraw told PTI on Sunday.
The change in policy is designed to promote the North-East as a tourism destination. Foreigners can travel to these places of natural beauty by planning through organised tours.
“Now any foreign traveller can visit these states through organised tours which have to be handled by a local tour operator based in that particular state,” Oraw said.
Foreign tourists will have to apply a bit early for the permits, and once those are issued, local tour operators will do all the facilitation, Oraw said.
The Indian government is also planning to open border area tourism in the next few years.
“In a bid to provide more opportunities to people of these areas, the Government of India is planning to open up the border areas with tourists likely to be allowed to go up to four kilometres near the China and Myanmar borders,” Oraw informed.
“The Government of India’s Home, Defence and Tourism ministries are all on board to open up border tourism so that the people residing in these areas get more employment,” he added.
Domestic tourism in North-East had shattered all records in 2021, with 1.3 crore people visiting from other parts of the country.
