SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, SEP 16 -
Nepal and China are trying to revive the Kathmandu-Lhasa direct bus service which shut down four years ago to give a fillip to the upcoming Nepal Tourism Year 2011.
The two sides have agreed in principle to resume the service through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the recently concluded fourth meeting of the Tibet-Nepal Joint Tourism Coordination Committee.
Laxman Bhattarai, joint secretary of the Tourism Ministry, and Ba Zhu, director general of the Tourism Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, signed the MoU. The service started on May 1, 2005 and was stopped in 2006. The two sides had planned to resume the service in 2008 but nothing came of it due to permit hassles.
State-owned Sajha Yatayat operated the twice-weekly Kathmandu-Lhasa service. China’s refusal to give visas to individuals caused the bus service to come to a complete halt. Attempts were also made to resume the service during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Nepal and China have agreed to promote NTY 2011 in Tibet through TV, radio and hoarding boards at major crossroads in Tibet. The two sides have also agreed to allow Nepali operators to conduct regular helicopter and charter services to Manasarovar, Tibet and provide Tibet visas to international tourists from Nepal.
The Tibetan side has assured its Nepali counterpart that it would do its best to achieve the target of NTY 2011.
Similarly, the two governments have agreed to work closely through their respective diplomatic channels to get more Chinese airlines to fly the Lhasa-Kathmandu route, states a press statement issued by the Nepal Tourism Board.
The members of the Nepali delegation have extended an invitation to their Tibetan counterparts for the next round of the meeting to be held in Kathmandu in November next year.
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