Hotels in India ask for passports from Nepali clients

Itahari: Suraj Agrawal has concluded his recently made journey to Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal of India.

An inhabitant of Duhabi Bazaar of Morang district, Agrawal had carried his passport for his four-day Kolkata travel. As he stayed at Hotel Hindustan International at Park Street in Kolkata’s central business district, he and his friends were asked to show their passports. Other friends were surprised at the request, as Nepal and India do not officially require passports to travel. However, hotels in India ask to show passports. ”I have been travelling India for a long and this is something I have been accustomed to,” said Agrawal who had also studied CA course at this one-time capital city of British India. ”They do not trust on citizenship and other official documents for their data entry of their Nepalese clients like me,” Agrawal said. He added, ”This is not something asked in Kolkata only. I have been asked for the same in many other cities of Nepal.”

Agrawal said many staffers of Indian hotels do not have knowledge of passport-free status for Nepalese in India and vice-versa. ”If one has a passport, it would be okay and speedy data entry for room booking in the in-person hotel appearance,” said Agrawal, ”If one does not possess passport but other documents like citizenship and voter card, they consume quite some time for entry process.

Agrawal said a passport is the only one they trust as a strong data entry document. ”Our tourism entrepreneurs and government officials must talk with India on this issue but not all clients do have and carry passport while travelling to India,” shared Agrawal. —