Tourism Minister KJ Alphons has favoured lifting restrictions on foreigners travelling to Arunanchal Pradesh and parts of Sikkim, border areas in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
Alphons said that presently foreigners need special permits such as a Protected Areas Permit (PAP) and Restricted Areas Permit (RAP) to be able to travel in these areas.
“The Ministry has proposed opening up the Northeast for tourists. In the last six months the Government has opened up many restricted areas and if the plan in the Northeast works, then many more border areas can be opened up,” he said.
In a meeting with senior Home Affairs and Defence Ministry officials last week, the Minister sought such relaxation. Any change would be subject to the approval of the ministries because the issue related to India’s security, he said.
“The States too need to be consulted and as of now we cannot give a deadline for this. However, over the past six months we have been working very fast on this,” Alphons said. The Tourism Ministry, he added, was also planning to propose that travel restrictions be removed from border areas in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
In another meeting with Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, Alphons called for providing better air connectivity for tourist destinations.
“In the meeting, it was decided that the Ministry of Civil Aviation shall under-write any loss making route, if it is not already covered under Udan scheme. It was also decided that Udan scheme could be extended to all the under-served destinations at the earliest,” said an official from the Tourism Ministry.
He said during the meeting, Alphons also requested for daily Air India flights to Khajuraho, better connectivity to Aurangabad for accessing Ajanta-Ellora, Triangular flight on Kochi-Goa-Jaipur sector, more international flights from Kozhikode.
“Similarly, international flights to South East Asian countries from Guwahati Airport, commissioning of Kannur Airport, direct flights from Delhi to Kozhikode, daily flights from Kolkata to Shillong and more flights to Varanasi were also suggested,” the official added.