Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) Mr. Rabindra Adhikari informed federal parliament about the work done and progress made by the ministry.
On a speech at the meeting, Adhikari presented the progress made by the ministry. He informed about the runway renovation of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), progress of Nijgadh, Gautam Buddha Itnernational Airport and Pokhara International Airport project.
Besides, he also reported that the flights and service of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is being effective and the procurement details of two wide-body A330 is under investigation as there have arisen lots of criticism and queries.
TIA, the only international airport of the country will be operational for 24 hours after completion of necessary runway renovation, added Mr. Adhikari. TIA requires complete renovation for which it has to wait the operation of Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) otherwise 24 hours operation may lead to new problems.
At present, TIA is operating for 21 hours a day but has to close operation frequently due to repetitive runway cracks. Airlines have been increasing along with the addition of aircraft so, TIA is facing difficulty to cater the increasing demand of air travel with its limited and feeble infrastructure.
GBIA project has already attained more than 50 percent of physical progress and the blacktopping of the runway will start from September. The airport is expected to conduct first flight on 27th September 2019 and then operate regular flights soon after then.
Likewise, Minister informed that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Second International Airport (SIA) at Nijgadh has already been approved and the construction modality will be approved within 2 weeks. The land acquisition, compensation distribution and other preliminary tasks will be carried out after a month.
Pokhara Regional International Airport construction is also progressing and the land acquisition will be done only if required, he informed.
He added, “The government has registered a resolution in the parliament for the approval of the Montreal Convention (MC99) on increasing the compensation rate for the families of the victims due to the air accident.”
