Two cable car projects planned in Kathmandu

Sangam Prasain

KATHMANDU, NOV 30 - The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation is planning to set up two cable cars in the periphery of the Kathmandu Valley before Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

The Tourism Ministry had conducted a pre-investment feasibility study a year ago of five cable car projects: Thankot-Chandragiri (3.2 km), Godavari-Phulchoki (2.31 km) and Budhanilkantha-Shivapuri (3.42 km) in the Kathmandu Valley besides Dhunche-Gosaikunda (9.4 km) and Suspa-Kalinchok (4.5 km).

"Of these five projects, we are planning to push two projects in the Kathmandu Valley periphery targeting NTY 2011," said Rabi Shah, project manager, Tourism Infrastructure Development Project, Tourism Ministry.

He, however, said that it had not been confirmed which projects would be selected among the three. Construction is expected to be completed within 10 months after the feasibility study.

These projects will be developed in the "build own operate transfer" (BOOT) model.

The upper terminal altitude for the Thankot-Chandragiri cable car is 2,539 m, Godavari-Phulchoki 2,660 m, Budhanilkantha-Shivapuri 2,660 m, Dhunche-Gosaikunda 4,205 m and Suspa-Kalinchok 3,400 m.

Nagendra Prasad Ghimire, secretary at the Tourism Ministry, said that the proposed project had attracted a number of investors. He said that four to five investors had applied to invest in the project.

Shah said that cable cars in the Kathmandu Valley periphery would encourage both domestic and international tourists to stay for a longer period. According to him, development of

these projects before NTY 2011 could attract over 10-15 percent more international visitors to these rural destinations.

He said that the major aim of the project in these selected areas was to develop them as hot-spot tourism destinations. "These destinations have immense potential to attract domestic tourists and Indian visitors that provide excellent views of the valley from all the hilltops," he added.

Shah said that the total cost of the five cable car projects had been estimated at Rs. 1,983.95 million. Similarly, the Tourism Ministry has also started a feasibility study of a cable car in Muktinath, he added.



Project Cost Annual income Payback

Thankot-Chandragiri 244.7 77.17 3 years

Godavari-Phulchoki 247.7 71.14 8 years

Budhanilkantha-Shivapuri 249.7 90 6 years

Dhunche-Gosaikunda 850.22 450 9 years

Suspa-Kalinchok 391 65.7 6 years

Nepali sky seeing more flyers than ever

Sangam Prasain
KATHMANDU, NOV 14 - Frequent strikes and bandas and growing competitive market have significantly increased air traffic in domestic sky, as more and more Nepalis now opting to fly rather than taking a road route.

According to the first eight months' data of 2009 released by the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), passengers in the domestic aviation have increased by about 40 percent. In the first eight months of this year, 827,315 domestic passengers took flights to reach their destinations compared to 592,748 during the same period last year.

The growth in the number of domestic passengers has been attributed to growing competition among the airlines prompting them to slash their air fare by almost 30-40 percent. "The passengers' compulsions to take air option caused by frequent strikes and bandas for some years also contributed to the rise in air passengers," said airlines operators.

The number of air passengers had also grown to 1,036,586 in 2008 against 916,429 in 2007, according to the Flight Permission Section (FPS) of TIA. This figure represents air passengers of 13 different airline and helicopter services. The number of passengers had declined in 2006 with their number at 882,717 down from 1,110,923 in 2005.

The rise in commercial flight movement is another reason why passengers' numbers has significantly increased. The commercial flight movement in the first eight month of 2009 has reached 44,586 compared to 41697 of the same period last year.

During 2008, total number of flight movements (17 commercial and four non-commercials) was recorded at 69,286. This number was at 61,291 in 2006 and 68,704 in 2005. Currently, 14 commercial airline and helicopter companies are operating in the domestic sky. Pramod Pandey, marketing manager at Agni Air said that passengers' movement in his airlines has increased by 30-40 percent during this period. "Domestic occupancy has increased by 90 percent," said Pandey.

According to Rupesh Joshi, marketing manager of Buddha Air, there has been a drastic increase in the number of passengers this year. "Competition amongst the airlines has lowered the air fare by almost 45 percent," said Joshi. Joshi said that Buddha's airfare for Kathmandu-Biratnagar route had been decreased to almost 45 percent. The total passengers flying by Buddha Air until October reached about 460,000 against 300,000 during the same period last year. According to Joshi, the number of domestic passengers has increased by about 15-20 per cent and the foreigners by about 8-9 percent.

According to Pandey, foreigners' occupancy in small aircrafts saw an increase of 20 percent in October this year. "We received 6,500 foreigners this October compared to 4,500 in the same month last year," he said.

Raj Bahadur Maharjan, manager at the FPS at the TIA said that rise in the domestic flights has caused congestion in air traffic and parking.



Passengers in domestic flights

Month (2008) (2009) Increase (%)

Jan 70,829 81,432 14.96

Feb 83,446 92,526 10.88

March 75,091 109,148 45.35

April 82,707 123,648 49.50

May 83,036 101,260 21.94

June 63,001 96,960 53.90

July 60,602 110,496 82.33

Aug 74,036 111,845 51.06

More airlines to fly to Nepal

Sangam Prasain
KATHMANDU, NOV 23, 2009- International air links to Nepal are set to expand tremendously with new airlines getting operating permits and old airlines increasing their frequency.

Fly Dubai has received approval from the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) to fly between Dubai and Kathmandu which it will be doing with B737-800 aircraft from the third week of December. The carrier will operate seven flights a week.

"We will soon be approving Kingfisher Airline's application to operate a weekly flight on the Kathmandu-Mumbai sector," said MoTCA secretary Nagendra Prasad Ghimire.

Likewise, Jet Airways has applied to operate additional flights on the Mumbai-Kathmandu and Delhi-Kathmandu sectors.
Ghimire said that China Eastern Airlines had started Kunming-Kathmandu flights. It operates thrice a week.

Dragon Air has doubled its frequency with a wide-body aircraft with a seating capacity of 369.

In the domestic sector, Ghimire said that Buddha Air and Alpine Air had applied to fly to India. Buddha Air has asked for the Pokhara-Lucknow route, and Alpine Air wants to link Kathmandu and Delhi, he added.

"The increase in international flights is due to the rapid economic development of our neighbouring countries which has increased the number

of high-spending tourists," he said.

He added that increasing air connectivity between Nepal and India was the aim of the new air service agreement (ASA) signed between the two countries which has boosted weekly air seats five-fold and opened 10 new destinations.

Nepal and India revised their ASA after 12 years in New Delhi on Sept. 8-9. Under the pact, the two countries have agreed to expand the number of weekly air seats from 6,000 to 30,000.

Nepal can now offer 30,000 air seats per week to seven metropolitan cities in India while 21 other tourism points have been opened to Nepali airlines without seat or flight restrictions.

Ram Kaji Koney, president of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), said that an air seat shortage had made airfares expensive.

He added that the liberal policy of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had created opportunities for both domestic and foreign carriers which was good for Nepal's tourism and other sectors.

Koney said that the number of arrivals was rising significantly and that increased air connectivity would have a positive impact on the country's economic development.

"However, we still don't have enough airlines to spread the country's reputation across the globe," he added.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the number of tourists visiting Nepal via air in October 2009 increased by 10.8 percent. The statistics of the NTB shows that 56,009 tourists arrived in Nepal this October compared to 50,567 during the same period last year.

Air tourist arrivals in 2008 numbered 374,661, up from 360,708 in 2007.