Tourism projects hit hard by Pandemic: Bhattarai

Modnath Dhakal, Kathmandu / Aug. 26: The coronavirus pandemic has hit hard the tourism sector and seriously affected projects under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA).

Construction of three international airports in Bhairahawa, Pokhara and Nijgadh were affected and none of them could meet the target set for the Fiscal Year 2019/20. The Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa should have been completed and started flight services by the end of the fiscal, but it has achieved only 91 per cent progress.

Likewise, Pokhara International Airport has achieved 61 per cent progress against the earlier estimate of 75 per cent.

The Nijgadh Internatioal Airport also could not utilise the budget of Rs. 1.5 billion allocated for the last fiscal as it faced environment clearance problems and couldn’t complete the survey of the trees in the project area. The relocation of the settlement could not be done as well.

Similarly, the rehabilitation and upgrading of the Tribhuvan International Airport has been affected, as a result, the project is continuing instead of culminating by mid-July. The construction of new trekking trail, including the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT) was also slowed and only 77 km new track was built against the target of 113 km. The total length of trekking trail has reached 332 km so far.

The ministry has utilised only 59 per cent of the total budget of Rs. 21.21 billion allocated to the ministry while it had achieved 81 per cent progress in the FY 2018/19 when it was allocated a budget of Rs. 33.13 billion. The expenditure was smaller in the last fiscal compared to the previous year even though the size of budget was also reduced by one-third.

“The progress in the budget utilisation and project development was affected as the pandemic hit at a time when the capital budget would have been utilised,” said Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai.

He said that the construction of the GBIA would have been completed and the bills cleared had the crisis not hit the country. According to him, the ministry’s progress in capital budget is 64 per cent, financial expenditure 54 per cent and recurrent

expenditure 80 per cent.

Meanwhile, the ministry had prepared drafts of Aviation Service Authority Bill, 2020 and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Bill, 2020 and submitted them to the Parliament. It has also drafted the Aviation Policy.

“Likewise, compliance to international aviation safety standards has increased and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has recognised the positive changes in the sector,” said Minister Bhattarai.

The number of hotels has increased to 1289 by the end of previous fiscal from 1254 a year earlier. Night-time flight operations have been launched in eight airports in the country. The number of all-weather airports has also increased by three to reach 35.

Presenting the Progress Report of the ministry of Fiscal Year 2019/20, Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, Joint-Secretary at the ministry, said that the shortage of construction materials, raw materials and skilled human resources as well the shutdown of construction work contributed to the poor performance of the tourism sector projects.

“Likewise, the poor coordination among the concerned agencies such the Ministry of Forestry and Ministry of Land Management had delayed the work which would have begun much earlier had there been a proper coordination and cooperation,” he said.

The ministry said that the heritage reconstruction was satisfactory as 453 heritages and monuments were rebuilt. Dharhara construction has reached the 11th storey and Ranipokhari reconstruction is at the last phase.