Rahul Gandhi arrives in Dhaka on first visit

Dhaka: India's Lok Sabha member and Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Dhaka on Friday for the first time on a five-day visit to witness development projects being run by Grameen Bank and Brac, the world's largest non-governmental organisation.

Tight security was enforced around Dhaka's Zia International Airport as he arrived on board an aircraft of India's private Jet Airways and then was received by Grameen Bank chief Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus and senior foreign ministry officials.

Officials said Gandhi came to Dhaka on a "private visit" to get a first-hand experience of rural development projects in Dhaka and several other parts of the country.

The Grameen Bank of Yunus, whose experiment of poor people's banking earned Bangladesh the repute of being the home of microcredits, and Brac, which also operate microcredits and a well acclaimed literacy campaign, host the visit of the high-profile 38-year-old Indian leader.

Tight security

The elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion alongside armed police with sniffing dogs laid a security blanket in and around the airport while a team of India's Special Protection Group earlier chalked up the security plans during his stay here.

"He will mainly visit the projects undertaken by Brac and Grameen Bank," a foreign ministry official said.

Sources close to Rahul said he would try to see if the Grameen Bank and Brac projects could be replicated in India.