KATHMANDU, 25 September, 2011
A small plane carrying foreign tourists crashed in a hill south of Kathmandu airport early on Sunday, killing 18 people. The accident site lies between Lamatar and Bisankhunarayan VDCs in Lalitpur, around 15 kilometers south of the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Eighteen dead bodies have been recovered from the site, according to SP Bhog Bahadur Thapa, who is overseeing rescue operations.

In all, there were 19 people—mostly foreigners including ten Indians—onboard the Buddha Air beechcraft. The ill-fated aircraft was approaching Kathmandu airport in cloudy weather after completing its mountain flight.

Some locals said the plane caught fire shortly before the crash. While others said it flew lower than its usual course before it crashed.

Buddha Air has suspended all its scheduled flights for Sunday following the accident. It is the first crash involving a Buddha Air plane. Police moved rescue team to the site after they got a call from the locals near the crash site around 8 a.m.

Source: ekantipur.com

Dragonair is starting daily flights to Kathmandu from September. The Hong Kong-based carrier is currently flying three times a week on Hong Kong-Kathmandu sector.

“The further increase in number of flights to Kathmandu will provide more convenience as well as better service for passengers travelling to and from Nepal,” Alasdir Boyd, country manager of Dragonair, said in a statement. He also hoped that it will also contribute to the success of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign.

Boyd said the additional frequencies look to offer better convenience for Nepali passengers travelling via the Hong Kong hub and added that Kathmandu is an important and growing market for the airline. Dragonair has been operating flights to Kathmandu since December 2007.

“The further increase in number of flights to Kathmandu will provide more convenience as well as better service for passengers travelling to and from Nepal,” Boyd said, hoping that it will also contribute to the success of Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

Source: TANN

Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu is formally resuming issuance of permits for Tibet to third country visitors from August 1.

Tenzing Lama, president of Association of Kailash Tour Operators, said the Chinese Embassy has informed the association that it is formally lifting ban on entry of foreigners to Tibet from August 1. He also said the embassy has already started receiving applications for the permit.

However, some tour operators said the Chinese Embassy started issuing permit from the last week of July itself.

China had abruptly barred entry of foreigners to Tibet about a month ago to beef up security ahead of the Tibet visit of Chinese vice president Xi Jinping.

According to news reports, ban on entry of foreigners to Tibet had led to cancellation of more than 2,000 Kailash-Mansarovar tour packages.

Source: TAAN

Tourists visiting Nepal can now expect a much easier travel, thanks to digital support available in the country.

According to Monday's Republica daily, of late, software developers have introduced programs which tourists can use to find out details of tourist hubs, trekking routes, location of hotels, restaurants and other places on their mobile phone or Global Positioning System (GPS) device.

The best part of such programs is that the user needs no Internet access to use the services or pay any cost for them.

Nepal GPS Solution has recently created a digital map, placing maps of eight popular tourist destinations in GPS.

Map Editor and one of the founders of NepGS Bijay Dewan said that the company is making the service available for free during the Nepal Tourism Year 2011.

"We are mainly focusing on tourism but we plan to build maps of all the cities in the country and make them available to tourists for free," he said, "Users need not purchase a GPS device as the service can be used through smart phones as well. After downloading the maps from our website, users will have access to fully routable maps."

The option of fully routable maps allows users to find out the time required to travel the distance, the shortest possible distance and to navigate towards desired destination.

Source: Republica daily Nepal creates free digital map for tourists