Dubai A chartered flight from Abu Dhabi carrying aid and supplies to Nepal has been waiting for clearence since April 25 to fly to Kathmandu.
“We are waiting for the green signal from Nepal authorities to land in Kathmandu. We don’t have landing permission as yet, but we are doing our best to get it as quickly as possible,” Dhananjay Jha, Nepal Ambassador to the UAE, told XPRESS.
Obstacles
“From our end we are prepared to send the help but we are facing huge challenges despatching them. The airport itself is small and can park only nine planes at a time. There is congestion in the airspace. Besides this, the airport gets closed down often due to bad weather. We are in constant communication with Nepal civil aviation authorities to sort out the matter,” said Jha.
Speaking to XPRESS, the diplomat said the embassy is flooded with offers of help from different organisations and expatriate communities in the UAE. “People want to give cash, clothes, blankets and more. We are overwhelmed with the response, but my advice to people would be to wait a little until things fall into place in Kathmandu. Once commercial flights get regularised, people can send more supplies,” said the ambassador.
He said a handful of distressed expatriates - whose passports are stuck in the embassy - have approached the embassy to arrange special travel documents so they can fly home to their families.
Jha said thousands of Nepalese expatriates in the UAE have been affected by the calamity. “I will not be surprised if thousands of residents have lost homes,” he said, adding the Nepalese population here is about 300,000.
