Grant Enhancing Nepal's Air Transport Service to Ensure Sustainable Development

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are assisting Nepal in preparing a project design to improve the quality of air transport services.

The Japan Special Fund is extending a $750,000 grant to prepare the Civil Aviation Airport Project. The grant will be managed by ADB. The government of Nepal will provide $190,000 to complete the funding requirement.

The technical assistance will come up with a feasibility design suitable for ADB financing to improve the country's aviation sector. It will reassess and survey air traffic and transport network updates, and the results will be used as a base to design a viable and feasible project that will address deficiencies in airport operations in the areas of management, capability, viability, safety and feasibility. A proposal will also be made for meeting future air navigation equipment requirements over the next 10 years.

The assistance will also reassess the capability of the government's Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal as a regulator and airport operator, and prepare an action plan to further enhance the performance of the agency.

"The civil aviation sector in Nepal is relatively well managed and complies with international requirements. However, its equipment and structure need improvement for sustainable long-term development," said Kazuhiko Higuchi, Director of ADB's Transport and Communication Division, South Asia Department.

Nepal is a landlocked country with rugged and mountainous terrain that makes road construction and maintenance costly and difficult. Limited funding also contributes to the problem. Certain areas of Nepal remain largely inaccessible except through porter and mule tracks, and in some areas, light aircraft landing strips.

Air transport has played a significant role in the administrative, economic and social development of the country, and in the absence of adequate roads, it has provided links between the capital of Katmandu and various administrative and commercial centers of the country, as well as with the outside world.

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