February 26: The Department of Immigration (DoI) has started issuing route permits for domestic and foreign tourists to visit restricted areas through electronic system (online), the state-owned RSS reported.

According to the RSS, the DoI made the online arrangements to issue route permits to facilitate the tourists visiting the restricted areas under the initiative of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN).

Until now, the department used to issu permits to tourists visiting the restricted areas only through the time-consuming paper works.

TAAN General Secretary Binod Sapkota said that the route permits can be obtained online since last week.

According to him, online route permits have been issued to three Chinese citizens through Magical Nepal Pvt Ltd. Among the Chinese nationals whose route permits were issued online are Bing Si, Chichi Ping, and Winhua Luo. This development is expected to ease the journey for tourists visiting upper Mustang, upper Dolpo, Chum and Nubri valleys in the Manaslu region of Gorkha, as well as Simikot, Changkheli, Namkha in Humla, and Kanchenjunga in Taplejung.

TAAN President Nilhari Bastola told RSS that the online route permits for the restricted areas will make the trek easier for both tourists and entrepreneurs. "The easier we make it for the tourists, the more tourists will visit Nepal. I believe this online service will be beneficial for the tourism industry," RSS quoted Bastola as saying.

Acting director general of DoI, Krishna Bahadur Katuwal said that the long time-consuming process of obtaining route permits has come to an end with the launch of the online permit system.

According to him, tourists can now easily get permits from their company and personal accounts through 'QR payment'.