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KATHMANDU, JANUARY 11
The initial enthusiasm for PRIA seems to have petered out. We have forgotten GBIA completely. With Kuwait's Jazeera and Nepal-born Himalaya pulling out the few flights citing worsening weather, the writings are writ large on the walls and skies. It faces existential questions.
It has dawned on the masses in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal late in the day that it will not be easy to extract alternative or additional routes for the two new 'white elephants' from India. Without alternative air routes, airlines have no option but to use the old time-tested ones, which will offset the cost burden on the airlines. The way out would be for the country to pick up the extra tabs or monetarily compensate the airlines for their services. With free visas and free tickets for our migrant brothers, it should not be too much hassle to bear the extra costs of flying via Simara.
Another way to add a competitive edge to the GBIA and PRIA is to jack up the charges at the TIA to encourage airlines to fly to the two new airports. We must ensure that India does not throw spanners on Simara for using it as the gateway to the airports built with Chinese loans and grants. India seems to have taken the Chinese engagement in these projects as a threat to them.
If a TV presentation by a 'patriotic' Indian anchor, Sudhir Chaudhary (always Chaudhary!), on PRIA is any indication, we are unlikely to bag route permission. With a grave countenance of a man carrying the weight of his country's security, a Nepal map on the wall and a stick in his hand, he labels PRIA as a Chinese threat to India. He runs his tool in all three cardinal directions - north, south and west - measuring the equidistance between China and Pokhara and Pokhara and India, heightening the Chinese threat to India from the Nepali airport. He calls it a BRI baby. They can be melodramatic, which to some of us seems slapstick, in their TV presentations and analysis. An Indian teacher once asked for my opinion on the peaceful nuclear prowess of his country. I told him what made him think his nuclear energy was for peace and others for aggression. One of my best buddies stood up and accused me of being Pakistan's friend.
That said, it is also possible that they are aware of the threats, which we are not. We are superficial, without worries about security or other affairs of the state. None of the Nepali prime ministers has shown more than a lukewarm lip service to 'ask' India to open up the routes in the last 12 or 15 months. Considering the geo-political realities, the Republic should have felt the Indian pulse before embarking on the projects.
Could it be why the wise king Birendra did not exhibit any enthusiasm for building new international airports?
A version of this article appears in the print on January 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
