Helipad Construction in every VDC: a meaningless program announcement.
May 9, 2016 – The announcement of Government regarding the construction of helipad in every VDC or municipality putting the primary focus on the rural villages of Nepal seems to be a meaningless decision to be announced. According to the experts, the construction of these helipads don’t cost anything to the government because of which the whole announcement seems to be unethical.
The Government illustrated that public land will be used for the construction of these helipads. Using a public land and not using the concrete structure, a helipad can be prepared by a person in 15 minutes by selecting a round structure of land and making it plain using the locally available tools. It doesn’t cost much money and not much of time for the construction but the Government is so smart that it makes a public announcement for this construction as they are going to build a very huge project like building an international airport.
An airline official told that it only takes a big letter ‘H’ written in a plain land where helicopter is supposed to land. To write the letter ‘H’ is just a matter of a one or two kilograms of Limestone mud or a white rock sand. Even a high level official of Government is amazed by such announcement of the Government. It is not a big deal to build a helipad in any small plain structure, which is obviously available in any VDCs or municipalities of the country according to him.
Also a high official from Tourism Ministry also commented on this announcement of the Government. He also told that the construction of helipad just needs a small piece of plain land and nothing more and it would not even cost a penny for the construction.
However another high level official from the Ministry takes this announcement positively thinking that it will be helpful to escort the seriously ill patients and emergency cases to the bigger hospitals in cities from the hospitals or health post of the rural areas if plain areas are available near and the helipad be constructed on those sites. Even the helipad construction won’t cost any money it will spread a positive influence among people he added.
Similarly one another official from an airline operator of Nepal also said that it is not an impressive and meaningful announcement from the government. He said it is pitiful how the Government announced a program that doesn’t cost anything being meaning less but pretending to construct an international airport. UML affiliated him also commented that it doesn’t suit the Government to be this vulnerable.
The President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari announced to build one helipad in each VDC and Municipality of the country while presenting the national planning and programs for fiscal air 2073/074 yesterday.
