Feb 10, 2025

Govt reintroduces bill to split CAAN in Parliament

Govt reintroduces bill to split CAAN in Parliament

KATHMANDU, Feb 03:The government has submitted two bills in parliament that will separate the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) into a regulator and a service provider.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and the Nepal Air Services Authority bills have been submitted to the House of Representatives. If the bill proposed by Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Badri Pandey is passed, CAAN will be divided.

The government had previously submitted a bill to split CAAN into two bodies in parliament on February 23, 2020, and the National Assembly passed it on August 2, 2021, however the House of Representatives' tenure ended in the third week of September, 2022.

After two aircraft crashes in two weeks on July 24 and August 7, last year, there was a request at the political level to divide CAAN into a regulator and a service provider.

Badri Pandey, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, stated that the bill was introduced because it was deemed necessary to establish the Nepal Air Services Authority in order to standardize and improve air services by developing modern, convenient, and international standard airport infrastructure, as well as a safe and reliable air navigation system in the country.

According to the bill, the Minister of Tourism will chair the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, while the Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism will chair the Air Services Authority's board of directors.

The Director General will be the Civil Aviation Authority's executive head. The Director General will be appointed by the government and will be a Joint Secretary or a senior executive from the authority.

Similarly, the law proposes appointing a Managing Director as the Executive Director of the Air Services Authority. The Managing Director may also be recruited from outside the authority's employees.

Similarly, the Managing Director will be a senior officer of the authority or someone with at least 5 years of managerial experience, 15 years of civil aviation work experience, and a master's degree.

It is proposed that the Managing Director be appointed through an open competition. The government will pick the Managing Director based on the recommendations of a three-member committee led by the Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism.

According to the bill, the government has the authority to dismiss both the Director General and the Managing Director at any time, even if they have served for four years. The bill proposes removing the Director General and Managing Director at any moment if "lack of efficiency is observed, work is not satisfactory, or they do not behave according to their position."

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