India restores all valid visas

India yesterday restored all currently valid regular (paper) visas, in a development that will be much cheered by Bangladeshis, who account for the highest number of tourist arrivals.

Since March 2020, a valid regular (paper) tourist visa with a validity of five years had remained suspended, according to the officials.

Those can be used now, and Bangladeshi nationals can also apply for fresh tourist visas for up to five years, reports our Delhi correspondent.

But those on a tourist visa cannot enter India through land borders or riverine routes.

In another sign of the return to normalcy after more than two years of disruption to international travel brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic, regular commercial flight operation between the two neighbouring countries will resume from March 27.

At present, two Bangladeshi carriers and five Indian airlines are operating on a limited capacity under the air bubble agreement, causing the airfares to spiral more than four times.

Before the pandemic began, a return ticket to Kolkata, a less-than-30-minute flight from Dhaka, was about Tk 10,000. Now, it is Tk 42,000 to Tk 45,000.

"This is illogical," said Shujan Mahmud, chief executive officer of Bhaishob Media, who needs to fly to Kolkata as soon as possible for his ailing wife's treatment.

Unable to afford the Tk 90,000 needed for the two of them to fly to Kolkata and the cheaper modes of travel by bus or train not available, Mahmud has pushed back their trip.

So the news of the resumption of regular flights from March 27 has brought a huge sigh of relief to them.

If the fare is not unaffordable, there is another problem: seats are not available, as Rupali Rupa, an associate professor of Jagannath University, found out recently.

She needed to fly to Kolkata to attend a conference but could not manage a ticket due to high demand.

"There are so many passengers who want to go to India for different reasons," said Mazharul Haque Bhuiyan, the immediate past secretary-general of the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh, when asked about the scarcity and the abnormally high price of air tickets to India.

With the airlines are operating a limited number of flights under the air bubble agreement, there is not much that can be done.

"Hopefully, things will return to normal with the resumption of regular flights," he added.

Novoair, which operated two flights daily to Kolkata before the pandemic, said it will restart flights to Kolkata from March 27 after a long pause.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines and US-Bangla have also decided to increase flights to different routes in India.

Meanwhile, Indian Railway on Tuesday gave the proposal following Bangladesh Railway's (BR) letter to resume passenger train service, which has remained suspended since March 2020.

"We will take a decision in this regard after holding a meeting soon," Sardar Shahadat Ali, additional director general (operations) of Bangladesh Railway, told The Daily Star yesterday.

More than 3,500 Bangladeshis travel to India per day on average.