Foreign tourists have been facing problems in lack of an immigration office at Pashupatinagar check point in Ilam, the main border transit point with India.
The foreign tourists visiting Nepal via the border check point are compelled to go to Kakadvitta of Jhapa district to get travel permit. Although Indian tourists do not need the travel permit to visit Nepal, tourists from other countries need travel permit.
Most of the foreign tourists wanting to visit places in eastern part of Nepal via Pashupatinagar are said to return as they have to go to Kakadvitta to get travel permit. Similarly, Nepali and Indian businessmen have also been facing problems in lack of immigration center at Pashupatinagar check point.
Ilam is a touristic district and many domestic and foreign tourists visit the district but foreign tourists visiting eastern part of Ilam via Pashupatinagar from Siliguri and Darjeeling have to go to Kakadvitta even for simple paperwork to get travel permit.
A tourist guide Binod Gupta who arrived Nepal accompanying Bengali tourists from Siliguri said that they as well as tourist entrepreneurs of Ilam would be affected in lost business if the problem was not resolved soon.
Chairperson of Hotel Association of Ilam Devi Poudel said that the number of foreign tourists visiting Ilam would increase if tourists get travel permit from Pashupatinagar.
Poudel said that they knocked the door of the government time and again to resolve the problem, but it turned on deaf ear.
