India has agreed to open four new air entry points to Nepal in the eastern and western parts of the country to facilitate movement of international traffic, but two “vital entry points” are still on hold, reports Kathmandu Post.
The four routes that India agreed to make bidirectional or two-way are Kathmandu-Biratnagar-Dhaka, Kathmandu-Janakpur-Kolkata and Kathmandu-Janakpur-Patna in the eastern part of Nepal and Kathmandu-Mahendranagar-Delhi (L626) in the west.
However, India agreed to provide entry on the L626 route for low level flights only, or aircraft flying at the heights between 15,000ft and 24,000ft. The move is aimed at facilitating the plan of Buddha Air and other Nepali private carriers to connect New Delhi, India from Nepalgunj.
A technical team from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) signed an initial accord on Saturday to jointly conduct safety assessment of these agreed routes.
“Discussion on two vital entry points remained on hold, but overall the agreement is in fact a significant breakthrough,” said Rajan Pokhrel, deputy director general of Caan.
Nepal’s agenda for the technical panel discussion included bidirectional routes or entry or exit points from Janakpur in the eastern, Nepalgunj in the mid-western and Mahendranagar in the far-western regions.
“As per Nepal’s request for entry from the L626 route for high-level flights or flights above 24,000ft and another entry point from Nepalgunj, India agreed to make further examination by September 2018,” said Pokhrel. The upcoming international airports in Bhairahawa and Pokhara will not be financially and technically feasible unless India allows aircraft to enter Nepal over the Nepalgunj or Mahendranagar airspace.
According to Caan officials, discussion on the Nepalgunj airspace was purely a “defence issue”, the reason for visiting delegation’s reluctance to discuss it. The Indian side expressed reservations in the past over providing entry over Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj due to its defence establishment in Gorakhpur. A defence base is spread over huge swathes of land there, where fighter jet exercises are held regularly.