Recently appointed Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Rajan Pokhrel started his career as a technical officer at the then aviation department in 1990. Under his coordination, the International Civil Aviation Organisation had removed Nepal from its Significant Safety Concern list. Arpana Ale Magar of The Himalayan Times caught up with DG Pokhrel to learn about the current status of aviation sector and his strategies for its betterment in the future.

What is the current status of the country’s aviation sector?

Currently, safety is the major concern for the country’s aviation sector. Compared to the growth of aircraft movement in the international front, the growth in our country is slightly higher. Our international aircraft movement is annually rising by 13.85 per cent, while domestic aircraft movement is increasing by 15.45 per cent every year. Along with the growth in traffic movement, we have to be mindful about the safety and our capacity of handling air congestion. We have managed to show marked improvement, which is why ICAO removed us from their SSC list. To manage air congestion, we are planning to bring Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA), Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) and Nijgadh International Airport into operation. Also, while the number of air accidents is also on the decline, the rate of fatality in accidents is also quite low. So now, we are working towards further improving the aviation safety situation in the country.

As the new DG of CAAN, what are the immediate challenges that you foresee?

Aviation safety is my top priority. So, improving aviation safety and giving it continuity in the long term are my major challenges. Looking at the current activities, it is clear that we have already laid the foundation for a better tomorrow. Other challenges for me are to complete the construction of GBIA and the Pokhara Regional International Airport on schedule and to start construction of Nijgadh International Airport without any further delay. As GBIA is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019, the government is planning to operate it in G2G (government-to-government) model. In case this plans fails to materialise, CAAN will operate it and we are currently preparing ourselves for such a scenario. Likewise, PRIA will be ready by 2021, which will be a very important one for us in terms of boosting tourism. Along with these projects, we will also be carrying out upgradation work of our domestic airports. So, these are the immediate challenges for me.

So, how do you plan to carry out these activities?

The first and foremost thing that we need to focus on is to continue with the achievements that we made to get Nepal removed from the SSC list. Though ICAO removed us from the list because of our improved safety status and improvement in institutional structure, we must not be complacent. We must keep trying to improve further. Nepal succeeded in meeting the ICAO standards compliance rate — 67 per cent — which is higher than ICAO’s mandatory compliance rate of 60 per cent. Moreover, the full-fledged audit of ICAO will be held in May, 2020. Hence, we have to be prepared for that as well. Likewise, to improve services at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), to resume domestic airports in rural areas and to reduce the number of air crashes will be our major areas of focus. Similarly, we have decided to frame a master plan to upgrade domestic airports like Biratnagar, Dhangadhi, Chandragadhi, Nepalgunj and others. If we can upgrade these airports, there is a high possibility of these airports operating regional flights. Besides, we have other plans and programmes that have to be implemented for the betterment of the country’s aviation sector.

The European Union has yet to remove Nepal from its blacklist. What is the main issue behind this?

EU actually has two concerns for putting us on their blacklist. First is the organisational structure of CAAN. They want organisational reforms and improvements. They have recommended us to divide CAAN into two bodies — one looking into regulation issues and the other dealing with operational matters. Meanwhile, the second concern is the helicopter accident rate, especially the fatality rate. But helicopter operation is not like operating a fixedwing aircraft. If we go through the number of chopper crashes in the world then we can find more chopper crashes compared to plane crashes. Moreover, Nepal is a mountainous country and we have to operate choppers at high altitudes for rescue and relief operations. And it is while serving in highaltitude areas that most of our chopper accidents have taken place. Unfortunately, they have made an issue out of this. However, it is our responsibility to give a guarantee of aviation safety. And now we are working with private airline companies to improve this sector.

The government is preparing to divide CAAN into separate regulation and operation bodies. What is your take on this?

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation is working on it. This is a concern of ICAO as well. In 2009, ICAO had recommended us to allow CAAN to be a regulatory body only and establish another operational body. Of course this is beneficial for the aviation sector. After that, in 2014, we started to work on revising and amending the Civil Aviation Act. Since then, we have amended a few rules and articles. And now, as far as I know, the ministry has drafted the Act by amending three rules, including the separation of operational and regulatory bodies. They have proposed to let CAAN be regulatory body only. The draft is currently in the discussion phase with related stakeholders. After finalising the draft, the ministry will submit it to the Cabinet. However, CAAN is not directly involved in this process. We will follow whatever the decision is because we have to work as per the directive of the government.

Recently, lawmakers have also raised questions over the delay in starting the construction of Nijgadh International Airport. Why has there been so much delay in this project?

The most important thing we have to decide on is the construction modality. Unless we set the modality, we cannot work on any project. Initially, the government decided to construct the airport on its own. Afterwards it proposed the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. And again now it is talking about G2G model. So, with all this confusion, we cannot commence any work. Another issue is related to site clearance. We have submitted all the documents to the Ministry of Forest and Environment, however we have not received any response yet. Once we get a go-ahead from the ministry, we will start cutting down trees. Besides, we are almost done with compensation distribution and are currently involved with the resettlement of affected families as well. The detailed project report (DPR) of the airport is also ready and we are just revising it as per the current situation. So, the project does not have any other issue.

Without getting permission from India to utilise the western air route, how can the GBIA be able to operate international flights ?

The route won’t be a problem to operate GBIA. This is one of the highly potential airports in the country. We have already held discussions with India. Meanwhile, CAAN and the Airports Authority of India jointly submitted a request letter to ICAO in February to establish that route. After analysing all the documents, ICAO has to include those routes — Mahendranagar and Bhairahawa — in its global air navigation plan. After that we will publish this notice in our aeronautical information publication. Then interested airlines can propose to use the routes. If the procedure goes as per our plan, then the routes will come into operation soon.

Nepal is hosting the 56th Conference of Director Generals of Civil Aviation after 21 years. How are the preparations going?

The event is going to held from August 19 to 23, and this is the third time we will be hosting this conference. Every year ICAO organises this conference in different countries. Prior to this, we successfully hosted the event in 1976 and in 1998. So, we are hopeful that the event will be successful this year too. The preparations are going on under the guidelines of ICAO. The event will focus on cooperation and harmonisation among countries of the Asia Pacific region to ensure safe, secure, efficient and economically sustainable development of civil aviation.