Nepal, India sit for talks to discuss more air routes

Teams of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) led by Air Navigation Chief Narendra Bahadur Thapa and India’s Airports Authority of India (AAI) led by Air Navigation Chief AK Datta are holding the talks.

Assistant Executive Director of CAAN Rajan Pokharel said that crucial decision would be held most probably on Friday as preliminary talks were initiated on Thursday.

Currently, airline service providing companies are bearing more costs for being a single air route to enter into Nepal. The international flights land at Tribhuvan International Airport only via the route of Simara.

Nepal is urging the Indian government to provide five air routes to enter into Nepal including the ‘Trans Himalaya Two’ and four other locations. Pokharel shared that the issues of air routes were talked about in the meeting.

During the recent India visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal, agreement was made over the agenda of providing more air routes stating that target was set to forge consensus within six months.

Since construction work of Gautam Buddha International Airport is ongoing in Bhairahawa, consensus on additional air routes is inevitable for the beginning of the airport.

Similarly, Nepal has to rely on India’s air routes for the takeoff and landing of the aircrafts in the Nijgadh International Airport being constructed in Bara district.