Nepal's Push for Additional Air Routes to India Shows Promise

Kathmandu. Nepal's efforts to secure additional air routes with India appear to be succeeding after a long time.

The Ministry of Tourism has sent a letter to India through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for talks. Sources indicate that India is also positive about this letter. Discussions on this matter took place when Indian Foreign Ministry Additional Secretary Munu Mahawar visited Nepal.

Secretary Mahawar, who came to Nepal for the Nepal-India energy-related meeting, held a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Shishir Khanal and Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai yesterday. In that meeting, Minister Khanal urged to advance the proposal discussed on the issue of air routes. Ministry sources said that Secretary Mahawar responded positively to the request and stated that discussions between the two countries would take place soon.

Nepal has been urging India to add air routes for entry into Nepal. Flights are currently entering through only one route via Simara. It has been requesting more routes.

On the other hand, India has been reluctant to provide low-altitude entry points from Nepal's western and eastern borders, citing security concerns in military areas and the complexity of air traffic management.

Nepal has requested three new routes: Janakpur, Bhairahawa, and Nepalgunj. However, India has not agreed to these so far, citing security challenges.

When aircraft depart from Nepal, they fly via Bhairahawa, Mahendranagar, Simara, Biratnagar, Tumlingtar, Mechi, and Janakpur. However, for incoming flights, the main route is Simara, and the Mechi and Tumlingtar routes are being used for flights arriving from Bhutan and Lhasa to a limited extent.