Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has started process to purchase 10 fire vehicle under the criteria of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
According to ICAO, in the airport, the security team and fire vehicle should reach the accident site within a minimum of 3 minutes. Fire controller needs to be alert for 24 hours.
According to statistics of 2017 of CAAN, 29 airports are currently operating in the country. Out of 29 airports, 23 airports are in operation without fire vehicles. Resource Firefighting and Electro Mechanical Department of CAAN has carried out the process of buying Fire vehicles for Hilly and Terai region according to the public purchase law.
Director of Resource Firefighting department, Krishna Bahadur Thapa stated that under ICAO criteria, proposal has been evaluated for purchase of Fire vehicles for Pokhara Airport. “The specification and value sent by the company is being studied. We have asked different specification for different airports. There are 7 proposals for the Fire vehicles for Pokhara Airport,” he added.
The authority has call for a bid on Magh7, 2074 to buy one Fire vehicle for Pokhara airport. CAAN has started procuring large fire vehicle capable of holding 12500 liters of water and 2500 liters of foam for Pokhara Airport. According to the criteria of ICAO, this fire vehicle falls under 5 categories.
As per the information, the fire vehicle of Pokhara airport has already become old so the authority has planned to buy a new one. CAAN has prepared to buy fire vehicles for airports located in Jumla, Rara, Simikot, Tumlingtar, Jomsom, Chandragadhi, Janakpur, Bharatpur, Dhangadi.
Kul Prasad Simkhada, chief of Electro Mechanical department stated that the authority has planned to buy small Ultra-light High pressurized Fire Vehicle for the airports located at hilly region whereas for Terai region, the authority has planned to buy fire vehicles having capacity of 6000 liters and 1000 liters foam. The Fire vehicles for Terai region falls under 3 categories as per ICAO criteria.
The department has initiated to purchase 9 fire vehicles while demanding a bid on Poush 30, 2074.
Currently, the authority has 14 fire vehicles for various airports of the country. There are 5 fire vehicles at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). 12 fire vehicles falls under the ICAO criteria while the Ultra-Light Pressurized fire vehicle of Surkhet and Lukla airports are out of ICAO criteria.
TIA has three fire vehicles having capacity of 12,500 liters water and 1500 liters of foam whereas one has 9000 liters of water and 1500 liters of foam capacity and one has 6000 liters of water and 1000 liters of foam capacity.
Simara airport and Pokhara airport have 6000 liters of water and 1000 liters of foam capacity whereas Biratnagar airport has one fire vehicle having capacity of 9000 liters of water and 1500 liters of foam capacity.
Similarly, Nepalgunj airport has one fire vehicle having 12500 liters of water and 1500 liters of foam capacity and another has 9000 liters of water and 1500 of foam capacity.
