CHITWAN: The government has raised the entrance fee and miscellaneous fees charged for visiting Chitwan National Park (CNP), as published in the Gazette.

According to CNP Assistant Conservation Officer and Information Officer Nurendra Aryal, now the entrance fee for the park has been raised from Rs 113 to Rs 150 for each Nepali, from Rs 847.50 to Rs 1,000 for each national from SAARC countries, and from Rs 1,695 to Rs 2,000 for other tourists. Also, the 50 per cent concession previously made for children has been removed.

Likewise, the car safari fee has been fixed at Rs 3,000 and jeep safari at Rs 5,000 for all the visitors, apart from the entrance fee. Previously, the fee for any safari conducted in the park was fixed at Rs 4,520.

CNP Information Officer Aryal informed that the fee for an elephant safari has been fixed at Rs 500 for each domestic tourist, Rs 1,500 for the nationals from SAARC countries and Rs 2,500 for others. Since the park charges fees for visitors as well as the elephant, now each Nepali visitor has to pay Rs 1,100, each tourist from SAARC countries has to pay Rs 1,600, and Rs 2,100 each has been fixed for others.

Likewise, regardless of nationality, each visitor on jeep safari has to pay additional Rs 1,250 to the safari operators.

The new fee for visiting the CNP came into effect from October 15, Chief Conservation Officer Bed Kumar Dhakal, informed.

CNP collected a total revenue of Rs 248,199,998 including Rs 167,854,650 from entrance fee and Rs 32,560,000 from transportation charge in the fiscal year 2017/18.

A total of 152,671 tourists visited the CNP last fiscal year.