KATHMANDU, JULY 31
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has allocated a budget of Rs 41.85 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23. According to the authority, the budget has prioritised upgradation of airports across the country and development of new infrastructure.
Talking to media persons at a meeting held here today, Pradeep Adhikari, director general of CAAN, said that the budget allocated for the fiscal year will provide efficiency to the ongoing and upcoming works of development to be handled by the body.
"We have made a lot of progress in terms of aviation and almost doubled our revenue generation. Our goal is to focus on safety enhancement and to develop our infrastructure to international standards.
We are looking at upgrading our airports with modern architecture and implementing high standard management," Adhikari said.
According to CAAN, a total of Rs 41.58 billion in revenue was collected in the last fiscal year while operating expenses amounted to just Rs 2.3 million less than the said amount.
The regulatory body has decided to construct a new international and domestic terminal, a new parallel taxiway and a security building in Tribhuvan International Airport under a multi-year project.
Similarly, the major plans of CAAN for this fiscal year are to distribute compensations for the lands taken over for the construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA), Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), and Pokhara International Airport, the construction of a second terminal building and upgradation of taxiway in GBIA, development of a hangar area, apron area, and parallel taxiway in TIA, and construction of a helipad in Bhaktapur.
Moreover, CAAN has decided to continue the construction works at the Pokhara International Airport, construct new terminal buildings in Biratnagar, Bharatpur, and Nepalgunj airports, upgrade Mahendranagar Airport, to conduct a study for Dadeldhura Airport and Bheriganga Airport and their environmental impacts, construction of an airport in Udayapur, to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the construction of an airport in Chaundanda of Tehrathum and purchase Air Traffic Control simulator, among others.
On the occasion, Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha applauded the CAAN for its accomplishments and progress in the development of the country's aviation sector.
"The construction of two projects of national pride, the GBIA and Pokhara International Airport, is near completion.
While the GBIA has already started operations, the construction work of Pokhara International Airport is also nearly complete. The flattening of Ritthe Pani hill and relocation of a nearby landfill site is the only roadblock halting the progress, but it will be resolved very soon," he said.
"To expand Nepal's tourism potential, we have to develop our air transport infrastructure to cater to higher number of tourists, to attract more foreign airline operators, and to effectively provide proper management and services."
Furthermore, Adhikari shared that representatives of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will be arriving in Nepal around next month to conduct a flight safety audit. Stating that Nepal has received good remarks from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in their air safety audit, he expressed hope that the result of the safety audit by the EASA will be positive as well, which could remove Nepali airlines from the European Union blacklist.
"During a conference between director generals of aviation authority of various countries, we had requested the EU to remove Nepal from the blacklist. We have been blacklisted by the EU for over a decade. On Friday, the EASA wrote to us and said that a team will be arriving to conduct an air safety audit, which is a very good chance for the country to clear its name from the EU blacklist," he said.
Minister Shrestha also expressed his belief that the country will receive a good score on the safety audit report as the ICAO has already given a good score to Nepali airlines. "If all goes well, direct flights from Nepal to Europe will be opened," he said.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 1, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
