Govt set to give TIA revamp job to India
KATHMANDU, DEC 14 -
The government is all set to hand over the modernisation and upgradation of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Immigration System to India.
The proposal, which has been pending at the Home Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for the past one year, is currently being taken up by the Prime Minister’s Office for a final consideration. The proposal had been rejected several times in the past by the Nepali side during the yearly Nepal-India Home Secretary level talks that began after the hijack of an Indian Airlines flight from TIA in 1999.
A recent meeting at the Home Ministry, led by Home Secretary Nabin Kumar Ghimire and senior ministry officials, decided to forward the proposal to the PMO and the MoFA for final consideration. If passed, the Indian side will undertake the project at a cost of around Rs 80 million.
The meeting agreed to accept foreign assistance to upgrade the immigration system but decided that Nepal itself should look after the software that will be installed at the immigration desk gives the sensitivity of the issue.
After the meeting, the Home Ministry formally requested that the MoFA forward the proposal to India for execution. However,
there are two lines of thought in the ruling coalition concerning
the handover of the project. “We are in a great dilemma over whether to push for it,” said a senior MoFA official.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar and a few other ministers are in favour of immediately handing over the project to India, as prescribed by the Indian side in its Detailed Project Report (DPR). PM Bhattarai even summoned Foreign Secretary Durga Bhattarai on Tuesday to enquire on the status of the proposal.
Another section of the Cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, are of the view that Nepal should not “agree completely” to what is prescribed in India’s DPR.
“First, we should undertake this project at our own expenditure. Are we not able to spend Rs 80 million on our own? Even if we accept the Indian assistance, we need to trim down the DPR and only allow India to work on certain sections,” said DPM Shrestha during a meeting with Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel and Home Secretary Ghimire on Wednesday.
“Unofficially, we have decided to accept foreign assistance to upgrade TIA’s immigration system but there are some conditions,” said Director General of the Department of Immigration, Suresh Adhikari.
During his visit to India in January 2010, then Home Minister Bhim Rawal consented to allow India to undertake the project by preparing a DPR that included the current structure and set-up of TIA immigration. An Indian team consisting of security officials and bureaucrats had prepared a 50-page report highlighting the weaknesses of TIA’s immigration system and its current set-up, along with suggestions on revamping and modernising. The Indian side also conducted a low-key study in early 2010 on the installation of networking systems, modernisation of existing facilities, training officials and logistics like passport-reading devices, document verification equipment, vehicles for deportations and arrests, and ultra-violet lights that helps read bar codes. Only the top brass of the MoFA and the Home Ministry were privy to the decision to allow an Indian team to carry out the study.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
