Though Koirala was supposed to land in Colombo at 11:00 pm on Thursday, he arrived here at 3:00 am Friday with the Nepali delegation as Sri Lanka Airlines in which Koirala was traveling was delayed by four hours at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Worse, luggage containing PM Koirala's medicine and oxygen got misplaced on the way to Colombo.

At home, Koirala had engaged in hectic parlays with major parties mainly with CPN-Maoist and CPN-UML at the eleventh-hour for their green signal permitting him to represent the Nepalese delegation at the Colombo Summit scheduled for August 2 and 3.

While in transit in New Delhi, he had to take diplomatic initiatives to reach Colombo via Sri Lanka Airlines because it was not easy for Koirala to travel through the alternative route Delhi-Bangkok-Colombo. 

According to a reliable source, had he not been able to board the Sri Lanka Airlines flight, Koirala might have had to hitch a ride on the special flight of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh Friday morning.  The Indian side had also made such an offer to Koirala considering his problem.

Meanwhile, the main streets of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka were decorated with welcome gates adorned with the national flags and pictures of executive heads of all eight member states of SAARC.

Coincidently, Koirala's photograph was different. Sri Lankan officials involved in erecting welcome gates had used a rare picture of a weary looking PM Koirala with oxygen-pipe fitted to his nose. The PM had given that picture when he invited photo journalists at his official residence in Baluwatar last year where he was bedridden for a long time to counter rumors about his health condition.

BY NARAYAN WAGLE