Thailand became the first country on Tuesday to open a passport assistance office in Bodhgaya to facilitate its people visiting the town.

The office would help Thai devotees and tourists visiting Bodhgaya extend their visa or passport validity and lodge complaints in case of any emergency among other assistance.

Rural works and parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar and Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights member Arun Kumar Verma inaugurated the office at the Royal Thai monastery. It started functioning from Tuesday.

The passport assistance office comes ahead of plans to start a tourist visa-on-arrival facility at the Gaya International Airport. Now, that the office has come up in the town, devotees and tourists can extend their visa through here and don't need to visit the Royal Thai Consulate General in Calcutta.

Among the dignitaries present at the passport assistance office's opening were Thailand's ambassador to India Chalit Manityakul, Gaya district magistrate-cum-Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal and the committee's secretary, Nangzey Dorjee.

The monk of Royal Thai Monastery, Bodhgaya, Phra Ajhan Bithun Puttani, said: 'Now, devotees and tourists can avail facilities such as extension of visa or passport's validity from the passport assistance office in Bodhgaya. It would not only increase inflow of devotees and tourists to Bodhgaya from Thailand but also provide financial assistance to the people. Many Thai devotees and tourists want to contribute to Bodhgaya's development but can't stay back because of their visa. The office would now help them extend the visa's validity easily.'

Apart from Thailand, some more countries are planning to open such offices in Bodhgaya before the tourist visa-on-arrival facility starts at the Gaya International Airport. The British high commission officials have identified an office at Siddhartha Vihara from where the tourism department functions.

At present, tourist visa-on-arrival facility is available at Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram airports.

The Union government launched the facility in January 2010 to attract more foreign tourists to India. According to information available on the website of the Union tourism ministry, there has been around 59.7 per cent growth in foreign tourist inflow since the facility was launched.

There is strong demand for the facility in Bodhgaya because of the volume of flights flying in and out of the Gaya airport in the tourist season (October-February) from the neighbouring countries.