In 2015, a government fact-finding committee exposed the dire state of the Tribhuvan International Airport, rampant with a host of problems: rude staff, long queues, unhygienic restrooms, and chaos before entering the baggage terminal. Three years later, there is some relief for the passengers, adding an additional luggage carousel and tidying up the boarding area. But for the past few months, a new problem has added to the existing woes, forcing passengers to adopt a tricky route—and a long walk—to the new parking area from the arrivals section.

The new parking area, some 50 meters from the arrivals section, was inaugurated on May 21 last year by Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari, but construction on the site remains unfinished. The same day, the government also extended the airport’s opening hours by two hours 30 minutes—the airport is now in operation for 21 hours a day—to facilitate growing air passenger traffic, but the new infrastructural extension, according to officials who spoke to the Post, was put into use without prior planning and long before the construction plan for arriving passengers was completed.  

“The tricky lane that passengers currently take to access the new parking area has never been explained or resolved,” an official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal told the Post on the condition of anonymity because he feared persecution. “The new facility was opened in haste,” the official further added. “The ribbon-cutting ceremony by the minister was just about gaining popularity.”

Another senior official at the Tourism Ministry confirmed the Civil Aviation Authority officer’s assessment. “There was a lot of pressure to open the new facility way ahead of its completion because the minister was eager to show progress during his tenure,” said the official, who also asked not to be named because he didn’t want to be seen as speaking against his own minister.

Almost as soon as it opened, the new facility started gaining a bad reputation. The complexities quickly resulted in negative feedback as soon as the new parking area came into operation as the long walk didn’t just discomfort passengers trying to tow or carry their luggage, it has even injured some people.

Last month, a Japanese visitor fractured his leg while walking on the sloped lane to reach the parking area. “This year the highest and most brilliant award should go to the person who has brought the parking to another level at TIA,” travel trade entrepreneur Bishwesh Shrestha, whose guest had to go through the ordeal, wrote on Facebook.

“Even the luggage wheels break on the lane. This new arrangement at the airport adds to the hassles,” Shrestha, the managing director of Shuang Qi Tours and C&K Nepal Treks, told the Post.

Shrestha said that the parking space outside the arrivals section has been allocated for taxis and tourists only and the general public has to park at the new parking area. “They have to walk all the way up to receive their guests and return to the parking to get their vehicle once they spot their guests. It’s disgusting,” he said.

 Like Shrestha, hundreds of Nepalis vented their ire against the new arrangements at the airport and posted photos of passengers struggling with their luggage on the lane.  During one such exchange on Twitter, Hello Sarkar, a government grievance redressal platform under the Prime Minister’s Office, asked the concerned ministry to address the problem immediately.

Ghanshyam Upadhyaya, spokesperson for the Tourism Ministry, said they have received many complaints—mostly verbal—related to traveller inconvenience at the parking lot. “We have asked the head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” Upadhyaya said, without going into the details on whether or when the department would address the issue.

Government authorities say a tunnel route to be completed by mid-April will solve this inconvenience.

Raj Kumar KC, general manager of the TIA, admitted that the new lane has caused inconvenience to the travellers, but it was never meant to be a permanent facility.

“Beginning April 14, travellers would have a separate ‘arrival tunnel’ from the airport to the new arrival hall adjoining the Ring Road stretch outside the airport,” KC said.

According to KC, inbound travellers will have to pass through customs after immigration clearance and then move along the newly constructed tunnel to the arrival hall. “There will be two elevator lifts to move down at the final section of the arrival hall,” said KC, but he stopped short of giving details on the progress made so far on the plan he described.

When asked why people are forced to carry their luggage on their backs to reach the parking lot, he said those who are shown struggling in the pictures that have gone viral are travellers who don’t hire a taxi and go to the Ring Road to get on the public buses.

 “We also have the public bus facility outside the airport,” KC said, adding that 15 green number plate and 10 black number plate vehicles are allowed to park outside the arrival gate. A public bus run by Sajha is also allowed up to the international and domestic terminals to pick up and drop passengers.

The airport’s general manager said that private vehicles are still allowed to pick up and drop travellers from in front of the international terminal, and passengers are allowed to take the trolley to the parking lot.

But even the airport’s own officials say that the trollies, most of which are already in dire condition, are not easily navigable on the slope because of the way it is paved.

An airport official familiar with the ongoing work told the Post that the new tunnel may not be able to handle the volume of arriving passengers during peak hours. Between 2pm and 5pm, when most of the international flights arrive in Kathmandu, anywhere from 6,000 to 7,000 passengers—that is 60 percent of the total daily arrival—land at Tribhuvan International Airport. The official, who also didn’t want to be quoted because he wasn’t allowed to speak to the media, said there was no way the two planned elevators could handle those passengers during the late afternoon hours.

“We have asked the developer to look into adding an additional elevator on the site,” said Pratap Babu Tiwari, the spokesperson for the airport. “The work is in progress to meet the deadline.”

However, the airport official who anonymously spoke to the Post said that it was unlikely the tunnel would be finished on time even as the Tourism Ministry has been putting pressure on both the developers and the management to open the tunnel by mid-April.