Kathmandu, August 2, 2005

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is considering fining Austria’s OEISN Airlines aircraft for trespassing into Nepali airspace. It also plans to upgrade its radar system so that it can monitor international airlines’ unwarranted entry into Nepal’s territory. However, the preliminary investigation by the probe team has not found any suspicious elements on the aircraft. The11-member team, headed by Tri Ratna Manandhar, director of Air Traffic Service of CAAN, which was formed yesterday to investigate the aircraft’s unauthorised entry into Nepali airspace, submitted its findings to CAAN authorities today. “We are planning to fine the airline for breaching air regulations and we will get them to clear over-flight, landing and parking charges as per CAAN’s rules,” Rajesh Raj Dali, director general of CAAN, told this daily. “Although CAAN must be lauded for spotting the aircraft’s entry into Nepali airspace and forcing it to land at TIA, it is time we enhanced the TIA’s radar capacity owing to security concerns,” he said. “We have no choice but to upgrade the radar system immediately,” he said. The TIA’s traffic controllers could track the aircraft only when it had reached Tumlingtar, since Kathmandu’s existing radar system cannot cover the country’s entire air space.

NT gets nod for re-registration of pre-paid cellular services

Kathmandu, August 2, 2005

After over six months of suspending the service, the government has finally decided to reopen the pre-paid cellular mobile phone service, and the re-registration is to begin on August 6 in Kathmandu Valley. The Ministry of Information and Communication today gave its nod to Nepal Telecom (NT) to begin the prepaid mobile phones’ re-registration process. “The ministry has given permission to begin the re-registration process,” confirmed Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NT. He added a public notice would be brought out on Thursday. “The re-registration process and the format of forms will be almost similar to that of re-registration of post-paid mobile phones,” said Madan Kaji Shakya, director at NT New Services Directorate. A customer will have to mention the SIM card number and the forms should be attested by a gazetted government officer, he said. “This step has been taken to ensure ownership of the SIM card and prevent possible misuse,” said Shakya. In the first phase, re-registration will begin on August 6 and last till August 13 in KathmanduValley. The outside-the-Valley re-registration will begin soon after the service is resumed in Kathmandu.