KATHMANDU: The Immigration Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has urged the foreign tourists visiting Nepal to pay fees in cash for their on-arrival visa. It opted for this as e-payment was cumbersome and sometimes there were glitches in the system, said TIA Manager Prem Nath Thakur.

“Tourists visiting Nepal have to stay in queue for three to four hours to pay fees for their on-arrival visa as the software sometimes was not in operation. I urged the Chief of the Department of Immigration to make arrangements for the visiting foreigners to pay the fees in cash. Now, a notice in this regard has been published,” Thakura said.

At present, a large number of foreign tourists are visiting Nepal and there is only one ATM machine at the TIA.

Furthermore, technical problems were detected in different sorts of e-payment in use. To avoid difficulties facing visiting foreign tourists, they have been asked to pay fees for their on-arrival visa in cash, he said.

Each visiting foreign tourist has to pay 200 US Dollars in fees for the on-arrival visa and the US Dollar and currencies of other foreign countries are acceptable in the fees, according to the notice.