FIRE RAGE IN BIRGUNJ Kathamandu, 19 Jan.:: Three houses gutted to cinder after a fire broke out at Nichuta VDC-8 in Parsa district last night. Property worth Rs 500,000 has been destroyed in the fire, police said, RSS reports from Birgunj.. The fire broke out at around 11:00 pm from the house of local Mustakim Miya and destroyed the houses of neighbors Najir Miya and next other, according to Police Inspector Tapendra Dhowj Rathaur. The fire was taken under control within two hours with the support from locals and police personnel. Nnnn NEW DOMESTIC TERMINAL AT TAI NEXT YEAR- Kathamandu, 19 Jan.: Tribhuvan International Airport ( TIA ) will likely get a new domestic terminal with improved and advanced facilities next year. Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Posta Bahadur Bogati on Friday laid the foundation stone for the Rs 190-million domestic terminal to replace the old building, Sangam Prasai writees in The Kathmandu Post.. The proposed disabled-friendly building will be erected 30 m to the west of the existing terminal, and construction is expected to take one year. Airport authorities said they had promised the contractor a bonus if the building is completed ahead of schedule. According to Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the terminal building and the road and parking will occupy 4,959 sq m. The existing terminal, designed to handle 384 passengers per hour, was expanded and renovated in 1995. “Although the new airport building has been planned for a temporary period, it will provide double the facilities provided by the old terminal,” Suman said. CAAN has been conducting the first phase of the TIA Master Plan 2026 with a loan and grant assistance of the Asian Development Bank. TIA has been planned to be expanded to 90,000 sq m from the present 36,000 sq m by 2028. CAAN officials said that the new domestic terminal had been designed to function until 2028. As per the master plan, the present international terminal will be used to handle domestic flights. CAAN has moved to improve the facilities after endless complaints from travellers about the poor state of the domestic terminal. Passengers and airlines too have been complaining that they have not been getting their money’s worth for the airport taxes they are paying. CAAN is constructing the terminal with its own resources. It said that an area of 571 sq m area will be set aside for airline offices, restaurants and restrooms. There will be a separate domestic cargo handling area. “The existing building could no longer handle the huge volume of traffic,” said Suman. As per TIA statistics, passenger movement at the domestic terminal jumped to 1.55 million in 2010 from 1 million in 2001. Passenger flow is projected to increase to 1.94 million by 2015. Aircraft movement has increased to 99,290 in 2010 from 63,159 in 2001. Domestic aircraft movement has been projected to rise to 115,800 by 2015. CAAN director general Tri Ratna Manandhar said that focus on a second international airport had slowed down infrastructure development at TIA . “Though late, CAAN has realized that investment in airport infrastructure is vital for sustainability of the aviation industry in the country.” Meanwhile, newly appointed tourism secretary Sushil Ghimire lauded CAAN’s initiative to make the new building disabled friendly and said that it should also consider extra facilities for the elderly. Nnnn ELECTIONS AROUND THE CORRNER IN INDISTRIAL CORRIDOR Kathmandu, 19 Jan.: Bringing much-needed relief to industrialists, industries based in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor are all set to observe an election for an official trade union for the first time in nine years. The polls are scheduled for February-end. The industrialists had long been complaining about the compulsion to deal with numinous competing trade unions which not only consumed their valuable time but also affected production, with one union not agreeing with the deal reached with the other, Bedraj Paudel writessin The Kathmandu Post from Biratnagar.. The District Labour Office (DLO) took the initiative for the election after the Department of Labour dispatched a circular asking it to hold the election. The DLO held talks with industrialists, Morang Merchant Association, Morang Industries Association and trade unions and started preparation for the election. Raj Kumar Gupta, chief of Biratnagar DLO, said the elections will be held in 30 factories in the first phase. Somnath Adhikari, executive secretary of Morang Industries Association, said the decision to hold the election has created a new impulse in the entire industrial corridor. “It has delighted both the sides,” he said. Absence of an official trade union for a long time had been affecting factory productivity as well as creating complexities in revision of workers’ salaries. “The management currently cannot fulfil demands of all three unions at once,” Anil Sharada, coordinator of the committee related to labour issues of the Morang Merchant Association, said. “But after the election of an official union, such issues can easily be dealt with.” After the election, industries can hold bilateral talks with the new working committee on how to increase factory output and increase facilities to workers, according to Sharada. After the announcement of the election, unions are now busy updating information with their members and other officials. Gopal Sharma, president of Nepal Trade Union affiliated to the Nepali Congress, said the election ‘is in everyone’s interest’. Dharma Sanjel, president of the union to jute, garment, carpet and textile industries, said the election of one official trade union holds even more significance as it will simplify decision making which will benefit both employers and workers. Worker in the industrial corridor are also hopeful that that their salaries and benefits will go up after the election. nnnn