By Nayak Paudel & Purushottam P. Khatri

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the sole international airport of Nepal, is expected to get a relief as two new international airports are nearing completion.
The Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) in Rupandehi district in Lumbini Province and the Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) in Kaski district in Gandaki Province are expected to reduce crowding at the TIA.

“The international airport in Rupandehi will come into operation soon. Meanwhile, there is still some time for the one in Pokhara,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karn, director general at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
Karn, also the spokesperson for CAAN, further informed that a calibration flight had been scheduled at the GBIA for February 17.
According to Karn, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale had directed the concerned authorities to complete all the processes to start the operation of GBIA from May 2022, on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Gautam Buddha.
“We have equipped the GBIA with infrastructures as per the necessary standards. After the calibration flight, we will make sure everything is perfect to bring the second international airport of Nepal into operation,” said Karn.

The Rs. 6.22 billion-worth airport with 3,000m-long, 45m-wide runway, will be the gateway to Lumbini, an international pilgrimage destination for Buddhists worldwide.
“We have not received any proposal from international airlines regarding flying to the GBIA yet. Once the report after the calibration flight arrives and we assure that the airport is as per the standards, we hope to receive the proposals,” said Karn.

However, concerned authorities stressed a need to heighten security there.
“The TIA has been the only gateway to Nepal from abroad via air transport for many decades and we have seen how it has been struggling against smuggling of several illegal and expensive goods including gold,” said Mahesh Bhattarai, TIA Customs Office chief.

Speaking with The Rising Nepal on several occasions, several incumbent and past senior officials overlooking security at the TIA have said that the smuggled precious yellow metal are destined to reach India.
“Gold is smuggled through the TIA and most of it is transported to India through the open border by different people and modus operandi,” said Bhattarai, adding, “The GBIA lies in central Terai and is far closer to the southern border than to Kathmandu. It can be used as a major transit for gold smuggling unless security is strengthened.”

Echoing the words of Bhattarai, Rupandehi-based Bhairahawa Customs Office chief Gyanendra Raj Dhakal stressed that the GBIA needed to have quality security checking system for the international arrivals.
“Sharing open and porous border with India on the south, east and west, smuggling of goods are rampant everywhere. Having an international airport near the southern border will come with challenges and the facility needs to be equipped to tackle them,” said Dhakal.

The required equipment as per the customs officials, who overlook checking of goods and passengers arriving at the international airport, include hand-held and walk-through metal detectors, x-ray baggage scanner, CCTV cameras and drug detector among others.
“The checking equipment should be of the latest quality. There are new modus operandi used by smugglers which are undetected by our recent equipment. The infrastructures should be upgraded in parallel with the new ways of smuggling,” said Bhattarai.

Several hundred kilograms of gold are confiscated at the TIA annually from passengers arriving mostly from the Gulf.
Senior Nepal Police officers also argued there was a need of a dedicated intelligence unit to monitor smuggling through international airports.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP), who earlier led the unit at the TIA, said that there was a need of establishing an intelligence unit for investigation, prevention and mitigation of smuggling via international airports.

“The sole international airport seems to lack a proper security checking as well as capability to tackle new ways used by smugglers. Strict security plans should be implemented at the GBIA because an international airport in Terai will be more challenging than the TIA,” said the DIGP. The concerned authorities, however, informed that they were aware of the challenges posed by the GBIA and that they had taken the necessary steps.
“State-of-the-art security checking equipment has been installed at the GBIA for the Customs. Its facility has also been prepared by elaborately studying the TIA to plug the security gaps,” said Karn.

Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, director general for the Department of Immigration, said that almost all the preparations had been completed from the department’s side at the GBIA to deliver immigration-related services.
“Only networking and software installation programmes are left and these will also get completed in a week or two,” he said.

The organisation and management (O&M) survey for having separate manpower of the immigration office at the airport had already been endorsed by the Home Ministry, he said. As per the survey, there will be 45 offices staffers under the command of Joint Secretary to be appointed by the federal government, he added. He also informed that there would be 13 desks of the immigration at the arrival section and eight at the departure.

“Only a week ago, I made a field visit to the GBIA to get updated on the arrangements of the immigration there, and I found it well organised and systematic,” DG Bhattarai said. “All the services that have to be performed by the immigration will be based on an online system like here at the TIA.”
On the security part as well there will be an airport security office of Nepal Police under the command of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). All the security, service and internal functioning parts will be same as TIA’s, he said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) also assured that the government was implementing top-level security at the new international airports.
“We are going to have multiple international airports now and these global gateways should have strict security. All the authorities, including Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, immigration department and customs, will be doing their best to ensure utmost security at the new airports,” said Phanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesperson for the MoHA.

The Home Administration Reform Action Plan, 2078, made public by the Minister for Home Affairs Bal Krishna Khand on February 7, also has provisions to intensify security at the TIA and other international airports.
“The security at the TIA will also be upgraded. The GBIA will have better security. The PRIA, which will also come in operation soon, will also be equipped as per the standards,” said Pokharel.