I have travelled a few times this year using the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport in Nepal. Every time I have departed from or arrived to the TIA, I have had a feeling of anger, frustration and embarrassment due to mismanagement.
Some examples of incidents I have witnessed:
- An African lady asked for a washroom after passing through immigration. The police showed him one located north to immigration desk. The lady rushed towards it and was baffled because she has to cross over immigration desk to reach there. What happens when she comes back?
- An Indian national crossed over through empty immigration desk thinking since he doesn’t need a passport or visa to visit Nepal, it was like that. I talked to him while we were waiting for the baggage. Nobody stopped him.
- I don’t know what the case is recently but a year ago, the visa desk at TIA wouldn’t accept cards. The foreigners needing visa have to pay in hard-cash. I have met a few of them trying to find a bank or ATM (non-existent).
- While departing, the immigration is very crowded during late evening. Last time I went through I have to stay on queue for more than an hour (it was hot and humid – no fans or water) and surprisingly a lot of immigration desks were empty. I asked the airline official if it was same every day, and he said there was an extra flight. Why TIA accepts extra flight if they cannot properly process immigration?
- During departure, the immigration seeks complete documentation from those going for foreign employment and it takes time. Why cannot they set up at least one desk for normal Nepali passengers like the couple for foreigners?
- And, what about the arrival gate? Taxis?
We say our economy is based on remittance, and if we look at how those Nepalis going for foreign employment are treated, we feel bad. I can understand most of them are not well-educated, but then we have to treat them well, or at least have enough staff at the hall to ensure they manage everything well.
Everyone will agree, TIA is mismanaged and it’s the first thing foreigners see in Nepal.
Is outsourcing management an option?
Recently, there was news of giving the management of TIA to Indian private companies. And, there are already protest as we see everything connected with India suspiciously as a part of Indian conspiracy to snatch our sovereignty. This is certainly an issue, but if we could somehow have faith on our authorities to have proper monitoring and follow-up system; and if the contract agreement is proper, the handover of the management of TIA (except security, customs and immigration) will not be a problem.
Many of the airports I have seen are managed by private companies. The security check at the Tegal Airport of Berlin, the last I flew from, was conducted by private security firm.
However, the question we should ask ourselves is: why aren’t we looking at Nepali private companies? Or private companies from countries to which we can feel comfortable?
India contract is a tricky business of Nepal – as we have seen in the case of Machine Readable Passports. It will create controversies – and why create controversies. Better we work out a good solution by finding some Nepali firms interested.
Definitely, outsourcing to a private firm can help to improve.
Having said that all, we need to think about upgrade and improvement at the TIA as urgently as possible.
