July 5, 2004.At a time when international
travel has become increasingly accessible and easy, local
tour within some parts of the country still poses considerable
difficulty for the tourists.
Sikkim for example is trying to eliminate
the hazards of the visa for traveling to Tibet from Sikkim.
This will considerably increasing tourism potential in the
region especially amongst the foreign tourists who often prefer
to go to Tibet after a visit of the region.
However more basic improvements still remain
due. The lack of regional permits for tourist taxis results
in harassment of the tourists as well as the travel operators.
In north India and many other places, a tourist can book a
taxi from Delhi and visit all the hill stations before returning
to the capital. Not so in this region, although Darjeeling
and Sikkim share boundaries and tourists, no such system exists.
Anyone arriving at New Jalpaiguri station or Bagdogra Airport,
has to change vehicle regularly to travel from one destination
to another. The local tour operators has been demanding regional
tourist permit exclusively for tourist taxis for a long time
without much success.
According to government officials, issuing
of regional permits is a matter of policy decision which can
be taken only at the state level.
Local rules and conventions framed by local
taxi operators is another menace. For example no outside vehicle
is allowed to go for sight seeing in Darjeeling. There is
no legal restriction on this but the local taxi operators
create physical pressure on any vehicle outside of Darjeeling
trying to go to local sight seeing destinations. Similar problem
exist in Gangtok
and Pelling as well. |
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