How to Get an Arunachal Pradesh Permit in Guwahati

It looks like we are going to get our permit to Arunachal Pradesh after all! It’s been a process long in the making, to say the least. I am going to post a how-to here, for the benefit of other travelers hoping to do visit that far-flung corner of the planet.

First of all: if I knew what I know now, I’d try to get the permit arranged at the FRRO office in Kolkata. We did try Kolkata but thought it’d be faster to arrange it here in Guwahati, as the Holi festival was going to keep the branch shut down for a couple of days. Not so: Arunachal Pradesh permits are only available through an agency here – the Arunachal House refused us point blank.

So you need an agent. Our agent, who works part time at the Arunachal House office, visited us at our hotel at six o’clock in the evening. We had coffee in the restaurant, where we laid out our travel plans. He OK’d all our destinations, except for Changlang, made a few phone calls and that was it. The permit should be ours a few days later. Oh we had to pay a bit for it too… 8500 rupees/190 USD, to be specific. That is a heap more than the quote in Kolkata (30 USD), but it’s not like we can backtrack there and do it all over again.

The permit should arrive via email on Friday. We’re keeping every finger available crossed.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 12:06 am and is filed under Arunachal Pradesh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Big Bad Admin

Do you need an Inner Line Permit or a Restricted Area Permit?

We were quoted 30 US for the RAP by the clerk at the FRRO office in Kolkata. Other travelers later told us not to trust the Kolkata office to get anything done. A travel agent we befriended said that he preferred do deal with the FRRO in New Delhi. There appears to be an exception to the 4 ppl minimum if you are a married couple.

Should all your efforts fail, know that travel agents that specialize in AP can probably set you up with permits. They WILL charge you a fee though.
rajpreet

where in kolkata were you told 30 dollars?? I am looking to travel with my friend to AP next week but the FRO office told me only in groups of 4. Can you please send me more info?? pretty please??

Seat of Our Pants