Kathmandu: Nepal’s request for India to grant air entry points from the L626 route in Mahendranagar and Nepalgunj has suffered a setback as the southern neighbour has apparently denied it, multiple sources at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) said.
A technical delegation, who was in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Thursday to continue the air routes talks started last June, informed the Caan’s management on Sunday that India had made a “U-turn” on the two vital air entry points after having initially agreed to it.
Caan’s Director General Sanjiv Gautam refused to talk on the issue. The Nepali delegation that held talks with officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) was led by Deepak Baral, director of air traffic management at Caan. “The talks were confusing and disappointing,” a source privy to the matter said. The entry point from Nepalgunj was “denied” for “defence” issue while entry for high-level flights (flights above 24,000 feet) from the L626 route in Mahendranagar was “denied” for heavy traffic in the Indian airspace, the sources said.
“It seems that the issue will not be sorted out at the technical level and hence it will require a political level intervention,” they said. Some officials suspect that the India move could be a repercussion of Nepal’s decision to withdraw from the first-ever joint military exercise among the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member states in Pune, India last month. India had “unofficially” expressed its unhappiness over Nepal’s decision.
15/10/18 Sangam Prasain/Kathmandu Post
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A technical delegation, who was in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Thursday to continue the air routes talks started last June, informed the Caan’s management on Sunday that India had made a “U-turn” on the two vital air entry points after having initially agreed to it.
Caan’s Director General Sanjiv Gautam refused to talk on the issue. The Nepali delegation that held talks with officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) was led by Deepak Baral, director of air traffic management at Caan. “The talks were confusing and disappointing,” a source privy to the matter said. The entry point from Nepalgunj was “denied” for “defence” issue while entry for high-level flights (flights above 24,000 feet) from the L626 route in Mahendranagar was “denied” for heavy traffic in the Indian airspace, the sources said.
“It seems that the issue will not be sorted out at the technical level and hence it will require a political level intervention,” they said. Some officials suspect that the India move could be a repercussion of Nepal’s decision to withdraw from the first-ever joint military exercise among the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member states in Pune, India last month. India had “unofficially” expressed its unhappiness over Nepal’s decision.
15/10/18 Sangam Prasain/Kathmandu Post
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