Bhutanese delegation holds meeting with BTC counterpart in Kokrajhar

Bhutan's gates will reopen on September 23: Tashi Penjore

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR: A team of Bhutanese officials led by Director, Law and Order, Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, visited Kokrajhar to meet their counterpart officials of the Bodoland Territorial Region on Wednesday. The officials included Dasho Dzongdags/Dungpas, Superintendents of Police, Immigration officials of Sarpang and Samdrup Jongkhar districts.

As part of their tour programme, the Bhutanese officials attended a meeting held under the chairmanship of Dharma Narayan Das at the conference hall of the Block-A, BTC Secretariat, Kokrajhar. During the meeting in which Naren Chandra Basumatary, Secretary, BTC, gave the welcome address, Tashi Penjore, Director, Department of Law and Order, Ministry of Home Affairs, said that in the last two and half years, due to COVID-19 restrictions, such visits could not happen.

"During this period, many officials on both sides have changed and have not able to meet each other to establish friendship and person-to-person contact, which is essential for the benefit of the people living along the borders in both countries in terms of any cross-border issues. This time as the COVID-19 situation has improved, the Bhutan government has announced the reopening of its borders for trade, commerce and official transit on September 23, 2022, provided the COVID-19 situation does not change for worse. We are excited and looking forward to it and accordingly, we have taken various initiatives to make the visits wonderful," he said.

He also welcomed the regional tourists to travel to other tourist places in Bhutan through Gelephu and Samdrupjongkhar. He added, "Unlike in the past where we were able to issues entry permit only through Phuentsholing and Paro, now we have added three more additional entry gates for tourists. The whole nation is now prepared to give visitors good experience, quality services, quality accommodation, transport, food etc. But Substantial Development Fund (SDF) will be charged to improve the services and pump back in the tourism sector for infrastructure development in tourism and for environmental conservation." He apprised that they had decided to offer tourists eco tourism, nature tourism, bird watching, flora and fauna tour packages etc to experience and enjoy the tour. However, to facilitate seamless movement and to give experience for travelers, he informed that they had developed procedures, rules, SOPS etc.

He further outlined the entry and exit of travelers, including the charges to be levied for regional tourists. He informed that Rs 1200 would be charged to those casual visitors who intend to halt the night and travel beyond the designated point. He appealed to bring with them their voter cards and other relevant documents while visiting Bhutan. The meeting was also attended by DC and SP of Kokrajhar district, Varnali Deka and Thube Pratik Kumar respectively, DC (I/c) and SP of Chirang district, Ajit Kumar Sharma and Pranjit Borah respectively, DC and SP of Baksa district, Masanda Pertin and Satya Ranjan Saikia respectively, DC and SP of Udalguri district, Dr Sadnek Singh and Supriya Das respectively, and the officials of BTC.

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