Foreign tourists may soon be allowed to explore restricted destinations in India

Foreign tourists visiting India from other parts of the world may soon be able to explore several parts of the country that were forbidden for them due to security reasons. This means, travellers from all countries, except from Pakistan and China, might soon be able to visit pristine and offbeat locations in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir, among others.

Read More: 90 lakh foreign tourists visited India in 2017, and other travel highlights from the year
This may become possible as the Union Home Ministry is now looking to bring about relaxations in the six-decade-old Restricted Area Permit regime. According to this rule, the foreign tourists visiting India are supposed to take special permits for visiting the above mentioned places.

Revealing more on this, Kiren Rijiju, the Union minister of state for home said, "Discussions are on with the state governments to relax the Restricted Area Permit provisions for some areas for foreign tourists."
Rijiju further revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs will get in touch with the state governments and related agencies for identifying the locations wherein there’s a scope to relax the Protected Area Permit, and the Restricted Area Permit provisions.


Generally the special permits to visit some of these restricted places are given out to foreign diplomats, including the members of the United Nations, and international organisations holding diplomatic or official passports.

But then, when it comes to visitors of any kind from countries like Pakistan, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, no permit is given unless and until a prior approval of the Union home ministry is in place.