The airport still has to acquire land

POKHARA: AUGUST 3 – The Pokhara airport has to acquire 350 ropanis. The land has to be acquired to build an aircraft hangar of a private company and to build additional structures. Although the acquisition was not mandatory for the immediate operation of the airport, private aircraft demanded that the land be made available by the airport itself.

Apart from that, international flights alone are not enough to increase the bustle here. The initial process of land acquisition has not been completed till the completion of the construction work. Project Chief Vinesh Munankarmi says that more than 20 ropanis of land has not been acquired yet.

‘All the land required for the flight operation has been acquired. About 20 ropanis is left, ‘he added,’ 3,800 ropanis of land was acquired. 99 per cent of the work has been completed. The rest will be completed within three months. ‘According to him, another 350 ropanis of land needs to be acquired. The government has not yet made that decision.

It also seems difficult to acquire more land. Initially, 3,106 ropanis, then 699 and then 48 ropanis of 3,800 ropanis of land were acquired in 2031 BS.

The construction period of Pokhara Airport has been extended by one year. According to the previous agreement, the work should be completed by July 10. However, due to cowardice and continuous lockdown, the deadline has been extended till July 10, 2022. 81 per cent of construction work has been completed. The remaining 19 per cent is related to most of the equipment and more work has been put on the interior decoration.

The airport was built by China’s CAMC with the help of a cheap interest rate loan from China’s Exim Bank. It is estimated that it will cost more than Rs 22 billion to build the airport. He said that all the necessary types of equipment have been brought and connected within four months. As it is built-in the EPC model, the cost does not increase even if the time increases.

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Although the construction of the airport has reached the second half, no internal preparations have been made. If the fast track has not been constructed, the Pokhara landfill site has to be replaced. Stakeholders have not paid attention to that. The foundation stone of the airport was laid on 13 April 2016. The construction work started only after a year and a half due to internal problems.