Domestic Aviation To Function Normally During Tihar
Domestic air transport in Nepal is braced to go through without obstruction this Tihar despite the border blockade from India. According to Mr. Pradeep Yadav, Head of the Nepal Oil Corporation Depot located at TIA,” There shall not be any problems in the domestic aviation since NOC have opted to continue using NAC aircrafts to airlift necessary fuel from Kolkata, India.“
He added,” The blockade didn’t create a problem during Dashain and same will be the case in the future.” NAC had been going 2 rounds to airlift fuel for the NOC before Dashain but had to decrease the frequency of flights during Dashain. The problem no longer exists as an agreement has been made between the two parties for 2 cargo flights a day to import air fuel from India. This agreement has been made in wake of the announcement that the fuel aid to be coming from China shortly doesn’t consist of any air fuel.
The NOC depot in TIA has a capacity of 4.5 million liters of fuel of which it has a mere 0.28 million in stock now. Starting Monday it will get an additional daily supply of 48 thousand liters of fuel through NAC. NOC currently supplies 50-60 thousand liters of fuel for domestic air transport on a daily basis. Supply of fuel to international airliners was stopped on 12th of Asoj after blockade led to halt in fuel supplies to NOC. In normal conditions international airliners needed a supply of 0.2 million liters a day.
NOC has informed that till Sunday they had 30 thousand liters in each of Bhairahawa and Surkhet, 40 thousand liters in Biratnagar, 20 thousand liters in Pokhara and 0.12 million liters in Nepalgunj as stock for domestic transport. According to recent data airports outside the valley supply 2-7 thousand liters of air fuel with Biratnagar topping the list with 7 thousand.
In the wake of India authorized border blockade, mainly at Birgunj, NOC has been quick to use alternate ways to regulate fuel supply for domestic aviation in the country.
