Honorable Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) Rabindra Adhikari inaugurated the construction of a new terminal for Pokhara Regional International Airport. The latest progress of the airport project and the future strategical approach was discussed at the program today.
The inauguration of the construction of the terminal building was conducted with laying foundation stone and necessary ceremonial procedures under the presence of project team, security officials and other delegates.
The airport project has already achieved almost 15 percent of physical progress. Minister Adhikari affirmed that construction of Pokhara regional international airport will be achieved before the projected time.
Recently, Prime Minister KP Oli inspected the under construction Pokhara Regional International Airport. Prime Minister Oli on his presence on 19th Annual General Assembly of Pokhara University, visited the construction site and took information about the construction progress of the Airport.
Under the direct instruction of PM Oli to construct the airport that can serve for longer periods, the project authority planned to acquire more area after consulting with the technicians. The team of the project has already surveyed to expand the area of the airport in the north-east and South part.
However, the locals were agitated after the repeated acquisition of land by the project. The locals expressed anger after the project process acquired land for more than 4 times in name of National pride project and the amount of compensation distributed is low than expected. The project authority and CAAN are responsible for addressing the issue and continue the project smoothly.
The airport project became controversial previously as the news about the airport being inappropriate for commercial flight operations after detail survey and report presented by Experts group formulated from Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA). However, CAAN has said that the negative information published about the airport is a matter of disgrace.
CAAN Director General Mr. Sanjeev Gautam said that the Boeing Company and Buddha Air along with CAAN officials concluded that the under-construction Pokhara Regional International Airport which will feature 2500m runway can easily accommodate 189 seater aircraft.
