Resuming flights to Nepal

ALMOST FIVE MONTHS after suspending all Indian Airlines (IA) flights to Kathmandu, the Government of India has agreed to resume services to Nepal. The visit of the new Foreign Affairs Minister of Nepal, Mr. Chakra Prasad Bastola, marks another step forward in bilateral relations. Kathmandu has been mounting pressure on New Delhi to restore the suspended flights which had meant a loss of revenue and a sharp drop in the arrival of tourists to the Himalayan Kingdom. The hijacking of IC 814 from Kathmandu on Christmas eve by Islamic militants and the drama that unfolded in Kandahar for a week, have left scars in India. That led the Centre to first suspend all flights to Nepal and then call for a thorough revamp of the security arrangements at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Since it caused quite an international uproar, the Nepalese authorities undertook a serious review of the security systems in the airport and presented a new arrangement to satisfy the needs of international airlines operating to Kathmandu. As far as India was concerned, the insistence was on a security check at the ladder-point before embarking the aircraft, by Indian security personnel. This problem has been sorted out and IA services are expected to resume before June 1.

With 19 flights a week from India, bringing in a load of tourists, Nepal wanted to revive the flows. It was a lucrative route for IA. Many foreign tourists from the West and even Sri Lanka were taking the Indian Airlines service to Nepal, resulting now in a 25 per cent drop in tourist arrivals. Tourism is bound to benefit from the restoration of IA flights, and it is one of the major industries as well as foreign exchange earners for the Kingdom. But there is more to the Bastola visit than just the resumption of air services. The Foreign Minister has had wide- ranging talks with his counterpart, Mr. Jaswant Singh, the Power Minister and the Water Resources Minister among others. There was a comprehensive review of bilateral relations and the irritants in taking them forward. India's help in bridling the Nepalese rivers and implementing hydro-electric power projects there has been mutually beneficial. Nepal wants New Delhi to expedite the work on the embankments of some rivers which could be in spate when the rains begin. It also wants India to take up more infrastructure projects in the Kingdom, now that work on the 22 bridges has been completed. This has to be on a continuing basis, but India needs to find the funds for it. It is in this context that the Government wants the involvement of the private sector in some of the infrastructure projects, especially power.

Despite the frequent change of Governments, earlier in New Delhi and now in Nepal, bilateral relations have been on a fairly firm footing. There are problems and practical difficulties in containing the activities of the ISI in Nepal and for the free movement of goods under the border trade agreement. Though India has given access to the Calcutta port through 15 routes, Kathmandu wants similar access to the ports in Bangladesh through India, to beat the congestion at Calcutta. To earn this access, Nepal will have to at least prove its sincerity in the efforts to contain the activities of forces inimical to India. But this has to be achieved in a friendly way without any arm-twisting or giving rise to anti-India sentiments in the Kingdom. Nepal and Bhutan have been strong allies of India in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), with Sri Lanka also moving much closer now. To make SAARC effective and an instrument for economic cooperation, India will have to make some sacrifices to avoid being seen as the `Big Brother'. By opening up to free trade with individual countries, India can try to make the South Asian Free Trade Area a reality in the next few years.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : One billion
Next     : India joins the NPT debate