Tourists arrival from Kakarvitta halted

KATHMANDU, Sep 20:The arrival of tourists from eastern border Kakarvitta has ceased. Following the development of the Covid-19 pandemic, checkpoints around the country, including Kakarvitta, were closed on March 24, 2020. Even after the Covid pandemic was over, the immigration office of Panitanki, the Indian post connecting to Kakarvitta, refused to let tourists into Nepal.

According to Ramprasad Regmi, Chief Customs Officer of Mechi Customs Office Kakarvitta, the immigration checkpoint Raniganj of the state of West Bengal, India, only Bhutanese, Nepali students, and tourists with Overseas Indian Citizenship Certificate (OCI) from the border Panitanki checkpoint are granted entry permits to Nepal.

"Due to the Indian immigration policy of allowing only Nepali students, Bhutanese citizens, OCI card holders and Nepali students going to study in Bangladesh to enter Nepal, the arrival of tourists from Kakadvitta has stopped," he explained. "In the past, a large number of tourists from third countries used to enter through this border." The movement is now almost at a halt."

Because India does not issue entry permits, travelers from Bangladesh and other third nations travel through Kathmandu to visit eastern Nepal. According to Uday Kumar Shrestha, outgoing president of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Natta), Kosi Province, the Nepali side must take high-level steps to reduce barriers to entrance for tourists from the east.

According to him, the tourism sector of Koshi province has suffered greatly as a result of the halt in traffic of visitors from third countries and Bangladesh who travel to Nepal via eastern border. Prior to the start of COVID-19, most Bangladeshi tourists came over this border, according to Immigration Office Kakarvitta.
 
According to Revant Bhattarai, Head of Immigration Office Kakarvitta, 5,197 visitors from 21 nations have entered Nepal from January 1, 2023. There are 3 thousand 414 men and 1 thousand 783 women.

During this period, 1,729 people from Bhutan, 12 from Australia, 12 from Bangladesh, seven from Canada, two from China, three from Finland, three from the Netherlands, one each from the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, and Thailand, three from South Korea, 11 from the United Kingdom, and 26 from the United States visited Nepal.