Come Poila Baisakh, you won’t have to route your visa for a trip to China through Delhi or Mumbai. It can be done right here, in Calcutta.

Impressed by the “speed of change” in Bengal, China is set to open a full-fledged consulate office in the city in mid-April.

“We’re gearing up to issue at least 30,000 visas from our Calcutta mission office in Salt Lake this year itself. The demand could touch 50,000,” Chinese consul-general in Calcutta Mao Siwei tells Metro.

In anticipation of increased air traffic, China Eastern Airlines will operate its direct flight from Calcutta to Kunming seven days a week from March.

The Chinese consulate office will also have a commerce wing working to “improve business ties with Bengal”, while special attention will be given towards establishing better cultural connect with Chinatown.

The consul-general believes the state’s focus on industry has tilted the scales in favour of Calcutta having China’s third full-fledged diplomatic mission in India, after Delhi and Mumbai. “Calcutta is an extremely important centre in China’s foreign policy, and we will try to facilitate better dialogue with China’s business captains,” he says.

The Chinese consulate office will be the 11th full-fledged diplomatic mission in Calcutta after Bangladesh, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and the US. Plans are afoot to shift to a bigger permanent location in Rajarhat later.

Networking with the chambers of commerce is another priority point. Efforts are on to build on the platform provided by the tie-up between the Sichuan chamber and Bharat Chamber of Commerce for long-term cooperation.

“Calcutta has the biggest Chinese community in India, a population of 3,000-plus, residing in Tangra, and even though most of them are Indian citizens, they are still our brothers and sisters. We must work to connect them culturally with mainland China. I will also try to raise the issue of poor civic infrastructure in Chinatown with the appropriate authorities,” promises Siwei.

While 460,000 Indians travelled to China last year, only 70,000 Chinese touched down in this country. “This is what we want to correct,” the diplomat says.

Lack of Chinese-speaking individuals is a major roadblock to propping up tourist traffic, Siwei points out. To remedy the situation, the mission is trying to launch a Chinese language programme in Calcutta. Even in Chinatown, if some of the youngsters are trained as tourist guides, it could help, the envoy adds. “A big project in iron and steel is also in the pipeline”.