Kathmandu, Aug 25
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.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 August 2020.
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