Nepal without int’l air conenction

KEDAR DAHAL
KATHMANDU, March 5
Air connection of Nepal with the world has been broken for two days after accident of the Turkish Airlines plane at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Wednesday morning.
Around 1,500 Nepali workers going abroad for employment every day, tourists arriving in an equal number and hundreds of students and businessmen have also suffered after closure of the only international airport in the country. Many tourists wishing to return home have also been stuck in Kathmandu while the TIA is also losing its revenues.
Tourism entrepreneurs say the latest accident has showed that it is already late to think about an alternative for the TIA constructed almost 63 years ago. “Accidents do happen but not having another international airport is our misfortune,” President of the Nepal Chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Agents (PATA) Suman Pandey says. “If another runway were prepared even with just barbed fencing, we would not have been disconnected from the rest of the world today,” he adds.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has informed that the TIA has now been shut down until 10 Friday morning. Landing and take-off of 80 international flights have been affected in a day due to closure of the airport. “We can only count the affected number of flights and passengers now and there is no calculation of the economic loss due to the closure of only international airport in the country,” Director General (DG) at the CAAN Ratish Chandra Lal Suman says.
The government has recently started construction of the Gautam Buddha Regional International Airport in Bhairahawa while preparation is being done to construct a similar regional international airport in Pokhara. But there is no solid progress in construction of the second international airport to be constructed at Nijgadh, Bara. “The second international airport has been limited to just bluster. The government must stress on constructing the second international airport learning a lesson from this episode,” Pandey suggests.
Resumption still uncertain
Aircraft moving kit has been brought in the Hercules plane of the Indian Air Force Thursday afternoon on special request of the government. It has started the process to tow the stuck Airbus A330 and the CAAN claims it will be completed by Friday morning. The Indian Air Force Plane was scheduled to arrive at eight in the morning but arrived only at one in the afternoon due to delay in completing due procedures before leaving from India, according to Suman. He says a 25-member specialist team including 13 from the Indian Air Force is currently working to tow the stuck plane. “We will work throughout the night. But I can’t say how long it will take,” he adds.
He reveals that the surface beneath the plane will first be dug to put a special kind of balloon that will be inflated to lift the plane. Jacks will then be put from all the sides after the plane is balanced, and efforts will be made to change the damaged wheels of the plane. The plane will then be slowly towed out of the runway after changing the wheels to clear the runway for flights. But there is little chance of changing the wheels easily. All three wheels have been damaged, according to the CAAN. The nose gear of the plane must also be opened to tow the plane.
TIA to be opened round the clock for three days
The TIA Office will open the airport round the clock for three days after the runway is cleared. The airport currently is shut down from midnight till six in the morning. “The passengers have suffered due to the closure now. We will open the airport round the clock for three days to cater to the stranded passengers,” General Manager at the TIA Office Birendra Shrestha says. The airport was operated during the night even during the recent SAARC Summit.
Buddha planes in case of emergency
The CAAN says emergency flights can be operated using ATR planes of Buddha Air if some more time were needed to clear the runway. “We can operate flights using smaller planes as we still have 5,000 feet of clear runway. We have, therefore, kept planes of Buddha on standby. We can operate flights to airports in border cities,” Suman states.