The Indian government is planning a new travel agreement with Bangladesh, enabling citizens of both the countries to avail of visa on arrival.
This new travel agreement is likely to be signed in January, 2013, when Indian home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will be visiting Dhaka to sign a number of other pacts with his Bangladeshi counterpart M K Alamgir.
The move is aimed at mending fences with Bangladesh. The country had been left disappointed after the Teesta agreement fell through in September 2011. The objection raised by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee threw a spanner on the agreement.
The visa on arrival will initially be restricted to certain categories of travellers. Shinde and Alamgir had held talks in Delhi a fortnight back, so that Bangladesh government agrees to provide a similar visa on arrival to Indians.
The move is also expected to give a boost to the image of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who will be facing the elections in 2013. She is known for her initiatives to improve Indo-Bangla relationship. In 2012, there were regular talks on bilateral issues, with Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni travelling to India on a number of occasions. Even Hasina had sent an envoy to attend former Prime Minister I K Gujral’s funeral recently. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee also has plans to visit Bangladesh.
Indian officials said the facility would be available to patients coming to India for treatment – elderly citizens above 65 and children below 12 years of age with parents accompanying them. Plans are afoot to extend this facility to businessmen and tourists travelling in groups. Visa on arrival is likely to remain valid for two months and talks are on to explore the possibility of exempting businessmen from reporting before the local police. Also, travellers who have never overstayed the visa period could be eligible for this visa.
There are plans to allow Bangladesh visitors to enter India, through visa on arrival, at points like the Haridaspur-Benapol border, as the Kolkata to Dhaka bus plies through the route. Another point can be Gede-Darshana border, in case the visitors travel by train and the Kolkata and Delhi airports. Similarly, a visa on arrival centre may come up at Tripura as there is a direct bus link between Agartala and Dhaka.
However, the officials want to ensure that the entry and exit points from India to be the same. Then it will be easier for the Indian agencies to keep track of those who are staying back, because there are often allegations that many people from Bangladesh, entering on short visas, are staying back and it becomes difficult for the Indian agencies to track them.