Visa on arrival must for tourism growth, says Bangladesh minister Rashed Khan Menon

Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon says both India and Bangladesh must give tourists from each other's country visa-on-arrival.

"This is the only way to boost tourism between India and Bangladesh, specially between Bangladesh and India's northeast," Menon told the inaugural session of the NADI festival 2016 involving India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan on Friday.

A 149-member Bangladesh delegation -- politicians, mediapersons, tour operators, bureaucrats and river experts -- led by Menon and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam arrived in Shillong to attend the conference organised by local think tank Asian Confluence.

Menon said tourism cannot grow in a 'suffocating visa regime'.

The tourism minister said Bangladesh is 'very keen' to start a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Dhaka to Guwahati and get the Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati bus service functional soonest possible.

He said India will have to open up 'as many as possible' border check-posts along the border to boost tourism into Northeast India, which is landlocked and somewhat isolated from the Indian mainland.

Photo from State Minister Shahriar Alam's Twitter feed

Junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam pitched for developing river transport between India and Bangladesh, specially with India's Northeast.

"We are developing road and rail transport but we need to develop river connectivity. For that, we need to preserve and protect our rivers and not kill them by building too many dams," Alam said.

There has been a series of anti-big dam movements in Northeast by indigenous organisations who feel such dams will destroy their ecology and natural resources.

Alam said that Ashuganj has been declared a port of call as part of the amendment to the Protocol on Indian Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) which has been operational since 1971.

It is through Ashguganj that Tripura has been getting cargo transhipped through Bangladesh using its ports.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma also pitched strongly for reviving crucial inland waterways between India's Northeast and Bangladesh.

"But the hydrology of these rivers have to be protected," Sangma said.

A one-minute silence was observed at the conference in memory of those killed and injured in the recent Bangladesh terror attacks.