NATIONAL 6 -(Spotlight Weekly)]

Safe Sky

Last year was one of the best in terms of aviation safety in Nepal

By A CORRESPONDENT

Despite the media flare-up of bird-hits in late September and early October, Nepal's sky proved relatively safe in the millennium year. Thanks to measures taken by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), only one fatal air accident occurred last year.

After five major accidents in 1999 with 36 casualties, CAAN declared 2000 as the year of air safety. This was the first time in the last four years that Nepal's sky saw only one accident. From 1995 to 1999, the number of air accidents was so high that Nepal's sky was portrayed as a danger zone.

As annual air traffic volume continues to rise, the existing infrastructure has become inadequate to handle operations in the domestic as well as the international sectors. Traffic growth at Tribhuvan International Airport has increased to a level where an aircraft lands or takes off every two minutes. Flights have increased manifold in recent years. A decade ago, there were only 100 flights a day compared to 350 today.

The haphazard growth in private airlines still continues as every incoming minister issues new licences. Because of lack of basic infrastructure, the facilities in the domestic sector are overcrowded.

While CAAN celebrated its third anniversary last week, it has many challenges ahead in properly managing the flow of passengers.

Aviation experts say a key challenge before CAAN is to modernize itself and to build infrastructure to handle the growing number of airlines. The domestic terminal and the parking lot outside are overcrowded.

"Because of some vigorous steps on our part, we have been able to limit the number of accidents," said Rajesh Raj Dali, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport.

CAAN issued aircraft operation certificate to 32 private airlines, but only 17 are in operation. In the international sector, 16 airlines, including Necon Air and Royal Nepal Airlines, have operations.

Nepal adopted an open-sky policy in 1992 which saw the number of private airlines increase steadily. The ratio of passenger flow in the domestic and international sector has also grown.

According to a study conducted by CAAN, the flow of aircraft and passengers increased by 13 and 41 percent in international and domestic sector respectively.

"Despite many constraints, CAAN is trying its best to provide proper facilities for air safety," said Medini Prasad Sharma, Director-General of CAAN.

The safety plan was announced last year when Nagendra Prasad Ghimire was director of CAAN. "We have drawn up a number of safety measures to guarantee air safety," said Ghimire, who is now with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. "Along with interaction programs, some other steps were also taken."

With the implementation of the open-sky policy, private investment continues to surge in the aviation sector. Private companies still want to join in the race in what is one of the riskiest businesses. However, in the last seven years, more than half a dozen airlines have closed down.