Biratnagar airport, country’s second largest airport has been compelled to operate without X-Ray baggage scanner. The X-Ray scanner installed at the airport vicinity has been shut down from past two months. The technical glitch caused by the flood has caused the airport authority to shut down the X-ray scanning machine.
CAAN is trying to replace the nonfunctioning X-ray scanning machine at Biratnagar but the process will take hefty time due to the lack of spare equipment as well as the lengthy public procurement procedures. As been reported by CAAN it may take few more months for the replacement.
We cannot wait long following the lengthy procurement procedure of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and have requested the authority to allocate any usable scanner, reported Mr. Suresh Man Singh, Chief of Biratnagar Airport.
A new scanner can cost around 7 million of Nepali currency so we are requesting CANN to allocate a maintained machine which will lease the cost, he added.
CAAN has planned to install a maintained scanner previously used at TIA that will be sufficient. Something is better than nothing, scanner helps a lot for both aircraft and airport security, Singh reported.
Previously installed baggage scanning machine at Biratnagar airport had been destroyed by the flood and cannot be maintained, so the airport needs to replace it with some other, an officer from airport reported aviationnepal.
An airlines manager said, “The inability to restore flood-damaged X-ray baggage inspection services in Biratnagar airport at peak season clarifies the prevailing unacceptable state of technical management at CAAN.”
