Source: The Sangai Express
New Delhi, March 23:
Government today said it was looking into scrapping Restricted Area Permit (RAP) needed for visiting some areas in the North East and announced allocating Rs 78.6 crore for tourism infrastructure in the region.
"The Home Ministry is considering the issue.
We have written to the Ministry for removing RAP which is part of British legacy," Union Minister of State for Tourism Renuka Choudhury told a conference here.
She said the Home Ministry has "made some response" and the Tourism Ministry along with eight States from the region who approached the Centre for abolishing RAP, were hopeful it would be done away with soon.
The Minister also underlined the need for developing tourism infrastructure in the North-East without disturbing its fragile ecology.
Choudhury said as part of the civil aviation boom, air connectivity with the North East and rest of the country was bound to increase and the region would create residential, transport and related facilities to meet the demand.
She said Government was also actively considering granting visa on arrival and planning several campaigns as part of the country completing 60 years of independence and the Commonwealth Games in 2010.Hoping to draw the 4.9 million Indian tourists, who go abroad, to the North-East, she said the sector was witnessing a growth of 8.8 per cent.
Addressing the conference on tourism development in the region, CII President Sunil Kant Munjal said the apex chamber had decided to make North East the fifth CII region after North, East, West and South.
7 injured seriously, situation tense in Zunheboto district