Budget of around 1.5 billion has been allocated by government for construction of country’s second international airport Nijgadh Airport project.
The allocated budget has been set aside for upcoming fiscal year. Previously, government had allocated around 1.2 billion budget for the same project for current fiscal year.
The national pride project which was proposed more than 25 years ago has not been able to initiate due to disputes of chopping down trees located around the area and lack of plan to fix construction modality.
Stakeholders and concerned experts have stated that the projected budget is much low than expected for the project as it has been tagged as mega airport project for the country.
Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada presented the budget and stated that the preliminary preparation of Nijgadh Airport project would start from up-coming fiscal year.
Large proportion of preparation is needed to be done for the airport although environmental impact assessment and land acquiring process has been almost complete.
The Nijgadh International Airport project has been planned as a game changer for Nepali aviation. It is termed as a mega airport project.
Currently, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is only the international airport operating in Nepal whereas other international airport projects: Pokhara Regional International Airport, Gautam Buddha International project (GBIA) are going on. GBIA is set to come into operation within 2019.
A Korean Company named LMW was given the responsibility to prepare the Detailed Probability Report of the airport. The government has already received report from the Korean company.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has already conducted Environment Impact Assessment whereas the 55 percent of the compensation distribution for the land owners has been accomplished.
