KATHMANDU: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has blamed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) for the delayed relocation of air fuel depot from Sinamangal that adjoins Tribhuvan International Airport.
Despite government’s serious concern over the present location of NOC’s air fuel depot citing security and subsequent decision for its removal at the earliest, the relocation of Sinamangal-based depot was delayed because CAAN failed to hand over the ownership of land to NOC.
It was what NOC’s Sinamangal Depot Chief Pradip Kumar Yadav argued during a press conference on Sunday.
“Owing to not having a clear demarcation of the identified land, site clearance and the structures in the proposed depot area from CAAN, it was difficult for NOC to proceed with the depot relocation.
He further shared, “We repeatedly prodded CAAN to demarcate the land and sign an agreement for land handover. But there was no noticeable progress besides removing a mound in eight months.”
A year back, the Cabinet meeting had decided to shift the current air fuel depot to the northern side of TIA. The initiatives were launched as per the long term plan forwarded under the aviation capacity upgrading project.
CAAN had allotted 60 ropanis of land in the golf course area of Nepali Army in Gauchar for shifting the air fuel depot, but the acquisition of land has witnessed hurdles. Depot chief Yadav expressed worry over failure to sign an agreement on land ownership transfer irrespective of repeated effort.
Logging and removal of some structures in the allotted area is yet to be carried out. Some 200 trees need logging and surface leveling.
However, site engineer Man Bahadur Singh informed that leveling ground was nearly over.
In this regard, in response to a query put forth by RSS, Director General at TIA, Hansa Raj Pande, informed that process to hand over land for depot relocation was forwarded. “A proposal on writing off land tax has reached the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. After it is done, the handover of land ownership would be easy,” he added.
The aviation fuel depot at Sinamangal has the capacity to store 7,660 kiloletres of fuel. Currently, 400 kiloletres of air fuel is sold every day. There are eight tanks here owned by NOC.
NOC is the sole body to sell and distribute fuels in the country.
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