Tourism minister directs upgrading of TIA into boutique airport

Published On: August 14, 2019 04:30 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Aug 14: Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai has directed authorities to develop Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Nepal's only international airport, as a boutique airport and inaugurate it at the beginning of Visit Nepal Year (VNY) 2020.

After a monitoring visit to TIA, the newly appointed tourism minister said that the services and facilities at the airport should be enhanced to build the image of the airport by developing infrastructure and bringing modification to the existing management to make VNY 2020 campaign successful.

The government is planning to declare the sole international airport of Nepal a boutique airport within this year. The minister has directed the TIA to beautify and add necessary aesthetic measures to upgrade the airport into a boutique hotel.

The TIA is trying to provide passengers with cultural and sophisticated experience in the airport after its transformation. The TIA is directed to clean and beautify its premises, provide trolley service, manage baggage facilitate passengers for swift service and efficiently process baggage.

The minister also highlighted the need to work on assuring security for passengers travelling in the night by installing taxi tracking system in the taxis operating in the night. He has directed the airport authorities to make taxi service simple, easy and systematic.

He asked the TIA to establish a dedicated counter for foreigners visiting Nepal for conference, seminar, meeting and discussion. He also directed the airport officials to make online payment for visa possible and make the Kiosk machine completely functional to make the immigration service effective and swift.

Minister Bhattarai asked the TIA to develop an application to disseminate the information about the delay in flight and sudden inconvenience in the service.

The meeting was held on Sunday in the presence of Mohan Sapkota, secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Aviation, Shishir Kumar Dhungana, secretary of Office of the Prime Minister, Rajan Pokhrel, director general of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board and coordinator of the VNY 2020 secretariat, Suraj Vaidya.