The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Wednesday formed a technical working group to discuss a range of airspace issues and create a favourable condition to open new cross-border air routes between Nepal and India.
The group is led by the deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and includes senior officials of the Tourism Ministry. It will finalize Nepal’s agenda for opening more direct and shorter flight routes between the two countries.
The group will submit its report to the ministry which will forward it to the Cabinet. Subsequently, a meeting will be held with an Indian technical team, said Suresh Acharya, joint secretary at the Aviation Industry Management Division at the ministry. Nepal has proposed holding the first round of meetings with India in September and the second round in October.
The airspace agenda, which had been gathering dust for a long time, was endorsed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Nepal. The government has requested India to allow three more air entry points at Janakpur, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj.
The prime ministers of the two countries have directed the concerned authorities to meet within six months to resolve the issue.
A joint communiqué issued by the two sides at the end of the visit said that the cross-border direct routes would facilitate flights from regional airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa to India.
This will save time and money for air travellers besides improving air connectivity between the two countries, it added.
Presently, the Simara route is the only route for aircraft flying into Nepal. It is used by almost all the airlines and has been suffering from air traffic congestion.
Two other entry points, Kakkarbhitta and Nonim, have been specially designated for planes coming from Bhutan and China respectively. Nepal offers more than six exit points for aircraft. They are Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Kakkarbhitta, Nepalgunj, Janakpur and Dhangadhi.
Meanwhile, the group will also incorporate the issue of opening the Trans-Himalaya 2 airspace ( Kathmandu -Bagdogra-Guwahati-Silchar-Imphal-Kunming ), which is a potentially lucrative route for Nepal, in the agenda to be discussed with the Indian authorities.
Although, the Trans-Himalaya 2 airspace has not been clearly indicated in the joint communiqué, it has mandated the authorities in the two countries to study and formalize the agenda related to airspace, Acharya said.
China has given the go-ahead to develop the trans-Himalayan airspace which is shorter, safer, more economical and more efficient for flights between Europe-Middle East and Oriental Asia.
The planned routes will reduce congestion of westbound traffic flows across the Bay of Bengal. The implementation of these routes will be possible only with the cooperation of countries such as India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The International Air Transport Association has kept Himalaya 2 as a future requirement. The proposed Himalaya 2 airspace reduces air travel distance by more than 100 nautical miles (around 20 minutes of flight time) and will significantly reduce CO2 emissions caused by international airlines. Nepal has been lobbying to have the airspace implemented for more than a decade.
Source : Ekantipur
