Kathmandu, August 19

The board of directors of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has approved budget worth Rs 45.17 billion for the fiscal year 2018-19 today. The budget mainly focuses on construction and improvement of various infrastructure of airports across the country.

“We have mainly focused on improving the physical infrastructure of Tribhuvan International Airport and other airports to reduce the problem of congestion,” said Sanjeev Gautam, director general of CAAN.

According to Gautam, the CAAN will prepare the National Airport Plan within the ongoing fiscal to find the exact number of airports that are required in the country, and to expand and improve the existing airports.

“We also plan to complete construction of other roads around the Nijgadh International Airport and cut down trees in the project area with the help of Nepal Army,” he added.

CAAN has said that it will manage 46 per cent of its total budget through loans, shares and grants. Similarly, 33 per cent will be managed through bank reserves, 13 per cent from income, six per cent from airport development fee and two per cent will be collected from outstanding dues.

Among the old projects, the budget has allocated Rs 3.5 billion for TIA runway rehabilitation works and Rs three billion for a parallel taxiway on the southern part of the runway.

As per Gautam, Rs 500 million has been allocated for a new helipad that can accommodate 30 helicopters. The helipad will be built on the eastern side of TIA. CAAN has planned to convert the existing helipad at TIA into parking bays for domestic aircraft.

According to CAAN’s plans, it will spend 76 per cent of the budget on capital expenses, nine per cent on current expenditure and five per cent to pay value added tax. Likewise, it will spend  four per cent to distribute bonus, three per cent for other works and three per cent to pay principal and interest of its loans.

In the last fiscal year, CAAN had allocated a budget of Rs 43.59 billion.