In a meeting held at Singha Durbar on Thursday, Prime Minister Karki expressed dissatisfaction over the corporation's tendency to use rented engines by leaving its engines in Israel, calling it an ”unbearable situation” and directing it to be resolved immediately, a participant in the meeting said.
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Prime Minister Sushila Karki has directed Nepal Airlines Corporation officials to immediately bring back the engine of the Airbus A-320 aircraft stranded in Israel and put it into operation.
In a meeting held at Singha Durbar on Thursday, Prime Minister Karki expressed dissatisfaction over the corporation's tendency to park its engines in Israel and use rented engines, calling it an 'unbearable situation' and directed them to resolve it immediately, a participant in the meeting said. 'Your engine is parked there, while the rent has increased significantly, does this happen?,' Prime Minister Karki asked.
'Be it from the steering committee or the management level, results must be shown now. An organization run by public money cannot be brought to a state of being grounded,' Karki said. The Prime Minister said that there is no need to be afraid when making decisions in the interest of the country, the people and the organization, and also instructed Acting General Manager Janakraj Kalakheti not to back down from the fear of lawsuits while doing good work.
In the meeting, Kalakheti had said that there was a legal difficulty in making a decision as the officer did not have the authority to pay more than Rs 600 million. Following the complaint of the Acting General Manager, Prime Minister Karki has directed the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Rai, to hold a board meeting on Friday and remove the limit imposed on Kalakheti's bill payment.
Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal, Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal, Tourism Secretary Hari Prasad Mainali, Corporation Chairman Bikram Rai and Acting General Manager Janak Raj Kalakheti were present in the meeting.
The Israeli company has already canceled the lease agreement, stating that the Corporation has not paid the amount. As a result of its decision, the Corporation will not be allowed to fly the 'Lumbini' narrow-body aircraft after Sunday. It has a rented engine from an Israeli company.
The company has canceled the engine lease agreement after the Corporation did not make payments as per the lease agreement with the Israeli company 'Israel Aerospace Industries'. The Israeli side canceled the agreement because the Corporation did not pay the outstanding amount of Rs 417.1 million.
The Corporation had been flying with rented engines in the 'Lumbini' aircraft since Magh 2080. The daily rent of the engine is 2,400 US dollars (about 338,000 rupees). There is a provision that additional fees are added according to the hours the aircraft flies and the flight cycle.
According to the agreement, this engine was rented for only 3 months. But even after 22 months, the corporation has neither paid the rent nor been able to bring back its own repaired engine from Israel. Therefore, on Thursday, the Prime Minister summoned the corporation officials and directed them to immediately pay the dues to the Israeli company, including the engine, and to bring the corporation's repaired engine to Nepal.
The engine was sent to Israel for repair by the then Executive Chairman Yubaraj Adhikari. In the meantime, three ministers in the Ministry of Tourism - Sudan Kirati, Hit Bahadur Tamang and Badri Pandey - and three governments have also changed.
