Japan on Wednesday decided to extend a grant assistance of a record Rs1.51 billion to enhance safety and efficiency of air transport in Nepal.

The largest assistance so far from Japan in the civil aviation sector will be used to implement the Project for Improvement of Aviation Safety Facilities.

The scheme will improve

safety at eight airports across Nepal—five short take-off and landing (STOL) airstrips, two regional airports and Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

The project will install a localizer with terminal distance measuring equipment at TIA which provides horizontal guidance to aircraft during the landing approach.  

“After the completion of this project, it is expected that the number of flights that can land with precision by using the technology at TIA will be increased,” the Embassy of Japan said in a statement.

“The number of flights that can fly to designated airports by utilizing VHF Omni-directional Range/Distance Measuring Equipment (VOR/DME) will be increased, and the runway usability factor for big aircraft at TIA will be improved.”

Likewise, VOR/DME will be installed at airports in Chandragadhi in the east and Dhangadhi in the west. Other plans include installing VOR/DME Test Rack at the Navigation Aid Main-tenance Section at Sinamangal and supply and replace equipment to enhance capacity at the Civil Aviation Academy, Sano Thimi.

The project will also install equipment such as Runway Threshold Identification Lights, Runway Threshold and End Lights, Runway Edge Lights and Solar Power Supply Systems at Lukla, Jomsom, Jumla, Rara and Simikot airports based on the plan and design envisaged by the project.

The grant assistance

was pledged on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Nepal.

Sanjiv Gautam, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), said that the three-year project would begin in 2017. “After the completion of the project, air safety will be significantly enhanced.”

In March 2013, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided Rs906 million in grant to install two new radars at TIA and Bhatte Danda in Lalitpur to the south of the airport.

The installation of second generation Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR) systems at TIA and Bhatte Danda under a TIA modernization project, which is expected to make Nepali skies safer, has been completed. The radar is slated to come into operation by November this year after tests are completed.

The MSSR will replace the existing airport surveillance/secondary surveillance radar system to enhance and strengthen the existing surveillance system installed under the Japanese official development assistance extended in 1994.