His Majesty\'s Government has begun moves to purchase a CASA 212-400 aircraft for the Army. The Royal Nepalese Army decided to buy the Spanish made CASA 212-400 after the Public Account Committee of Parliament forbade the purchase of RJ-100, a BAe Systems aircraft.

The Army decided to buy CASA because it would cost less than the RJ-100. CASA 212-400 is priced at Rs 1.2 billion while the RJ-100 would have cost Rs 2.34 billion.

The decision to purchase an RJ-100 was taken by the caretaker government of Girija Prasad Koirala, with Bharat Mohan Adhikari (of the UML) as the finance minister. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai became prime minister after the general elections and he vetoed the purchase citing that it was not appropriate for Nepal. The process was brought forward one more time after Koirala became prime minister.

CASA of Spain has not identified any local agent in Nepal. But Rohini Thapaliya, the same person involved in the RJ-100 purchase case, is said to be the main person behind CASA also.