Kathmandu, July 16 -- Local residents of Mustang, including a sitting MP and several politicians, submitted a petition to Prime Minister KP Oli in Kathmandu this week urging the government to lift the region's 'restricted' status.

This is not the first time such a demand has been raised, and as infrastructure the region's accessibility improved over the years, calls to remove the long-standing restriction have grown louder.

Upper Mustang is no longer weeks away from Kathmandu. Nearly 85% of the road from Beni to Kagbeni has been blacktopped, and one can drive from Kathmandu to Lo Manthang with an overnight stop in Pokhara.

Between April 2024 and April 2025, Lower Mustang received 144,745 international tourists, a near 50% increase com...