Seamless tourism takes off in Delhi-Agra-Jaipur `Golden Triangle'

The ministry of tourism today announced the beginning of seamless movement of tourists within the country with the first set of tourist vehicles leaving for the `Golden Triangle' of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur on 17 July 2010 and returning the same night.

The pet project of union minister of tourism Kumari Selja, the seamless movement of commercial tourist vehicles has been made successful by collaborative and pro-active efforts of the tourism and road transport ministries as also the respective state governments.

Tourism minister Kumari Selja has long been seeking lifting of the permit raj for commercial tourist vehicles, to facilitate seamless travel. She had held several rounds of meetings with the union minister of road transport and highways Kamal Nath in order to overcome the bottlenecks of multiple inter-state road transport barriers.

According to her, "there is a need for a system, which would ensure single window payment of taxes for seamless travel, through which tax can be collected centrally and apportioned to states," which, she said "would facilitate smooth movement of tourist traffic and avoid delays and inconvenience to tourists."

The `Golden Triangle' of Agra-Delhi-Jaipur is one of the main attractions for tourists, both foreign and domestic. Also, with the Commonwealth Games in Delhi later in 2010, the National Capital Region is expected to see an influx of tourists.

To avoid inconvenience to tourist vehicles in the NCR, especially in the Golden Triangle of Agra-Delhi-Jaipur, the ministry of tourism jointly with the ministry of road transport and highways and the state governments of Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has made arrangements whereby taxes would be collected centrally at each of the four starting nodes at Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur and Agra in such a way that the taxes thus collected are to be apportioned and the tourist coach / car would be allowed unhindered movement in the Golden Triangle.

Commercial tourist vehicles plying in the Golden Triangle would be provided with an octagonal sticker with security features designed by the ministry of tourism and the ministry of road transport and highways. The sticker contains all requisite details such as registration number of the vehicle, name of the operator, origin and destination points, route and period for which tax has been paid.