KATHMANDU, Aug 12: The government is preparing to officially inaugurate Visit Nepal 2020 and Tribhuvan International Airport as a boutique airport on January 1, 2020.

Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister has directed the concerned authorities to make necessary preparations for the inauguration of both on the same occasion New Year Day.

The government has allocated Rs 230 million for transforming the sole international airport of the country as the boutique airport.

The Nepal Tourism Board is announcing its annual budget of over Rs 1.75 billion this week, prioritizing the Visit Nepal campaign, which aims to attract 2 million tourists in the country next year.

KATHMANDU, May 29: The government has allocated Rs. 3.34 billion for the Gautam Buddha International Airport with a plan to bring it into operation from the upcoming fiscal year. About 74 percent of the construction works of the airport has already been completed.

The construction of the airport has been given top priority, said Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada, presenting the budget estimates for the fiscal year 2019/2020 at the joint session of the federal parliament Wednesday.

Likewise, the under-construction Pokhara regional airport will be getting a budget of Rs. 8 billion.

The target is to complete the airport by 2020. Likewise, the Tribhuvan International Airport will be developed as a boutique airport, with a plan to operate it round-the-clock. Furthermore, other domestic airports will be upgraded to run night flights.

The government also has plans to construct an alternative domestic airport new Kathmandu valley.

RUNWAY EXPANSION PROJECT TO BE COMPLETED BY JUNE

KATHMANDU, Feb 26: The Tribhuvan International Airport runway rehabilitation and expansion project will be completed by the end of June. The extending runway will be extended by 300 meters at the southern end (runway 02), according project chief, Babur Ram Poudel.

The rehabilitation and expansion of the TIA expansion project package NCB 01 will be carried out by Kalika-Tundi JV, who obtained the contract after the Chinese company Shanxi Construction Group left the project.

Poudel said that they are committed to complete the project in time.

Meanwhile, The Civil Aviation Office of TIA has decided to close the flights for 10 hours every day in view of the expansion works. The runway will be closed between 10 pm to 8 am every day from April 1. TIA operates 21 hours a day.

Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Adhikari inspected the site on Friday to take stock of the progress of the expansion project, which began in November 2017.

According to Minister Adhikari, the government is committed to complete all the expansion and rehabilitation project of the TIA by next year in order to meet the targets set by Visit Nepal 2020—which plans to bring one million tourists to Nepal in the year 2020 under its campaign.

The runway expansion projects NCB 02 international terminal building expansion and NCB 03 utility works are in the final phase, according to TIA.

KATHMANDU, April 17: Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari has announced to operate Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport in the country, for 21 hours daily.

In an interaction organized by the Nepal Tourism Infrastructure Development Council here in the Ministry today, Minister Adhikari shared that the Ministry was preparing to operate the TIA for 21 hours daily from upcoming mid-May.

He added that the move was targeted to lessen air traffic pressure as the TIA is facing acute air traffic pressure as of late. He added that though he was planning to operate 24 hours services in the TIA, it takes time to this effect. He also shared that night flights currently available from Kathmandu to Dangadhi will be extended to Bhadrapur of Jhapa in the near future.

Experts in tourism and culture sectors suggested Minister Adhikari to adopt effective plans and programs for the development of these sectors. RSS

YEK RAJ PATHAK, KATHMANDU, July 23: Subin Shah arrived at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on July 12, but hardly could he believe his eyes that he had actually landed back in his home country Nepal rather than another transit.

He was returning home six months after his stay in Australia. He did not know that in this short period of time a lot had changed in the scale of sanitation and management of the country’s only international airport.

It is true that everyone who visits the TIA would be suffused with the same feeling that swayed Subin. The floor, rest rooms, bathrooms, walls and chairs have taken on a cleaner look. The usual clutter of things that contribute towards disfiguring the airport is no more there. The rubbish bins and receptacles too look attractive. After entering the airport, the wafts of fragrance now take the visitors by surprise as well as delight. The travellers are now humming, “Excellent, the airport has become cleaner.”

Secretary at the Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation and a senior engineer, Bhim Upadhaya, wrote on his facebook wall on July 14, “Nepali people must be able to take a full advantage of Khem jee’s capability . We can witness the unimaginable volunteering work taken up by his company at the TIA which is making a short work of the cleaning task. In response to my request for lessons in keeping the Singha Durbar clean he said he was always ready and also made a commitment to arrive in Nepal from Australia in the next 48 hours. Khem jee is great, my salutation.”

Khem Sharma, who was praised by Secretary Upadhyaya, is leading the clean – up campaign at the airport. It has been eight years since 32 – year – old Sharma’s ‘Khem’s Cleaning’ has been cleaning in Australia. He has been cleaning up governmental and non-governmental offices and companies in Australia. The same hands are being used to clean up the airport, and only in just three weeks a transformation has descended the airport’s ambience.

On June 16, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal’s TIA Management and the Non – Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) reached an agreement to start cleaning up the airport’s international terminal building in a modern and international footing so as to set an example along the way.

NRNA took the major workload of the task and handed over the job to the Khem’s Cleaning. NRNA’s Vice Chairman, Bhaban Bhatta, said the company was chosen on basis of merit mindful of its success in Australia.

The clean-up starts at 12 midnight everyday under Khem’s leadership. He is backed up by 30 workers from the airport. He arrives at the airport at midnight with the workers and leaves at 5 am with them. As Kathmandu wakes up from its deep slumber, the airport greets it with a new fresh veneer. The routine of cleaning up the airport has remained the same since the work started more than 20 days ago.

Sharma celebrated his birthday, which fell on July 15, with the workers at the airport. A cleaner, Sanjay Magar recalled, “My happiness knew no bounds when we were able to celebrate sir’s birthday with him. He not only instructs us, but works along with us and this amazes me. It would be great if all the Nepali people learned to respect work like him. We start the clean-up at midnight and by morning it is complete.”

An exemplary transformation can be seen within the international terminal building and the upper section. If Nepal Government is to formulate a provision and criteria on cleanliness and enforce a monitoring channel in compliance with the regulation, all the billions worth of buildings in the city would be cleaned within six months to one year.

“The problem of cleaning the modern buildings due to the dust and smoke emanating from Nepal’s busy roads is temporary, and its solution is possible with the construction of roads in Nepal,” Khem shared.

Nepali film industry’s star, Rajesh Hamal, exudes similar opinion. He said he was extremely influenced by seeing the clean-up campaign during his visit to the airport a few days ago. “We are very much enthused when building the public, governmental and private sector’s physical structure, but these structures take on a decrepit and worn out look in just a few years’ time due to the failure at keeping it clean and carrying out necessary maintenance work,” Hamal insisted.

CAAN General Manager, Devandand Upadhyay, said although the work was started in view of completing it within a certain period of time, the workers have benefited from it. He added that the modern clean – up campaign would be given continuity in the coming days mindful of transferring the skills associated with it. “In particular, the campaign was launched to learn the non-resident Nepali people’s technology, skill and the international working style, and we look forward to giving it continuity due to the motivational results it has yielded,” Upadhyay said.

He added that in the coming days the workers based in the country can be tapped into for such a service. “We have learned the international style of cleaning up; given the availability of necessary technology and human resources, we can keep the airport glittering forever,” cleaner Sanjay Magar shared further.

Meanwhile, Secretary Upadhyaya has a desire to make the Singha Durbar glitter. He spoke of his eagerness of handing over Khem the job of cleaning the buildings inside the Singha Durbar complex. “It is not right to hand over to others the job of keeping your houses and offices clean, but if we could teach the workers here the international skills and working style from him, I believe we can continue this in the future,” he confided.

Hotel Association of Nepal’s General Secretary, Binayak Shah, said that if we could present the clean and managed airport to arriving tourists only once, it would leave a good impression on them towards Nepal. “Anyone will have the desire to present cleanliness and greenery to anyone arriving in Nepal; we should run this campaign for not only now, but forever,” Shah added.

Khem is of the opinion that an arriving tourist’s first impression rests on cleanliness in Nepal and that the country’s beautiful image is enhanced in the international community only if the airport – the prime gateway to the country – is clean. The campaign will formally come to a conclusion at the end of July, but it will continue if a request is made, according to Khem.

For now, the clean-up campaign is a month – long volunteering work. Khem’s company has launched such campaigns at the Bharatpur airport and Bharatpur cancer hospital. He is not only cleaning the structures, but only teaching skills and working style to the human resources in hand.

Those visiting the airport have started suggesting that the clean-up work must continue, and not halted after a month. RSS