By Maitreyee Boruah
New Delhi: The Governments of India and Bhutan are working on a draft proposal to facilitate people living along the Assam-Bhutan border avail best of medical services.

"The draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be a ticket of sort that would help poor patients from both the countries to cross the borders to access medical benefits," Nedan Foundation Director Digambar Narzary said.

To prepare the draft, Nedan is working in coordination with the immigration officials, police forces and various civil society organisations of India and Bhutan.

Nedan Foundation is an Assam-based non governmental organisation (NGO), which is preparing the draft proposal to be signed by border commissioners of the two countries in August.

The border areas falling in this health corridor are the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) in Assam and Samdrup Jongkhar in Bhutan.

The opening of the corridor holds immense importance for the Bodo tribals who live in areas with negligible healthcare centres.

"Bhutan has some of the best medical health centres. The corridor would greatly benefit Bodo people, who will only have to cross the border to get themselves treated," Narzary said.

An official of Assam's Health Department said that the state government will extend all sort of facilities to the Bhutanese who are on the lookout for medical benefits in Assam and neighbouring states.

Out of the four districts of BTAD, three—Kokrajhar, Baska and Chirang—share the 700-km border with Bhutan. The fourth district is Udalguri.