Bhutan King Wangchuk arrives in Assam for 3-day visit

Guwahati: Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk arrived here on Friday for a maiden three-day visit to Assam.

The 43-year-old king of the neighbouring Himalayan country was received by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his cabinet colleagues and senior officials of the state government at the Lokpriya Gopinath International Airport.

The king was offered Assam's traditional 'Gamocha', and he greeted the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues with folded hands.

The king will go to the famed Kamakhya Temple atop the Nilachal Hills in the city. He will meet the Bhutanese diaspora in Guwahati in the afternoon.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will call upon the king in the evening.

A cultural programme and a dinner will be hosted in his honour by Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.

The king and his entourage will leave for the Kaziranga National Park, famed for its one-horned rhino, on Saturday.

The royal visitor will leave for New Delhi on Sunday from Jorhat.

The chief minister said that the visit of ''His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk in Assam is eagerly anticipated''.

''His royal presence will further strengthen the cherished bonds between our two nations'', Sarma had posted on 'X'.

As a gesture of goodwill, the state cabinet had on Wednesday approved the reservation of three MBBS seats for the Royal Government of Bhutan-- two in the Nalbari Medical College Hospital and one in the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital. India and Bhutan share a 649-km-long border, of which a 267-km boundary is with Assam.