Who cares about it?

The Himalayan Times

25 October 2016

Who cares about it?

Nepal is gradually losing its beauty in many ways and sliding down in the index of naturally beautiful country to visit once in a life time. There could be many reasons behind this. One of them is the government’s poor governance, including the effective implementation of its laws, policies, rules and responsibilities which are the mechanisms needed to effectively and efficiently run the country. There is no proper monitoring and supervisions in place in the government owned organizations and semi-organizations. Most of such offices are heavily politicized and are run carelessly. Corruption is rampant and has been institutionalized causing the state to slide down in the global corruption index. Who cares?

It was sad to read the news item “Kathmandu Airport ranked one of the worst in the world” (THT, 23 October, Page 1) to read at such a time when the tourist season is fully on. Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has been named as one of the worst international airport among the 10 other worst international airport in the world. I am not sure whether this shocking news touched the heart of the concerned. But, the travel business communities must have been disappointed because of their heavy investment in this sector. However, they do not seem to be disturbed and bothered looking at their poor or zero initiatives to bring improvements in these areas. Otherwise, they should have exerted positive pressure on the government for maintaining world class standard of this one and only the international airport of the country.

According to a recent survey, long immigration lines with multiple annoying checkpoints at the international terminal remain too tiring for the incoming tourists. Smelly toilets, irritating immigration officials, long cue in luggage collection belts and poorly managed luggage checking system have been the examples of poor management of the airport. However, it was surprising to know that the concerned officials blame the surveyors for being biased against them. The condition of the domestic terminal is even worst. It seems that despite spending millions of rupees in the expansion and rehabilitation, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has completely failed to identify and meet the needs of the travellers.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj