The airport in Meghauli of West Chitwan is set to be upgraded as tourist airport.
Pawan Kumar Gautam, chief of Civil Aviation Authority Bharatpur stated that the concerned body has expressed interest in promoting Meghauli Airport as a tourist airport.
Chief Gautam said that the runway of Meghauli Airport can be enhanced to 1500 meters long from 1000 meters long.
Local residence is located 200 meters near the airport. The government will give them option to move from there so that the runway can be extended to 500 meters.
The airport area is spread to 23 bigha land and the runway is still not blacktopped.
Due to small runway in Bharatpur Airport, only small aircraft operate flight operations.
Gautam said that 72-seated aircraft can operate in Meghauli Airport by upgrading the airport.
Biswa Subedi, General Secretary of Tourism Development Committee Chitwan stated that there are ten hotels having 355 tourist capacities and 80 capacities of 10 home stay.
He also said that the airport should be upgraded into tourist airport by targeting local residents and tourists.
Bhakta Bahadur Basnet, Manager of Buddha Air’s Bharatpur branch stated that the carrier will operate flights with its large aircraft if the airport is upgraded.
He also claimed that the airport should be developed as a tourist airport.
After the upgradation, the aircraft can make emergency landing in Meghauli airport if there seems any problem during landing at Bharatpur Airport.
The flights to and from Megauli Airport were stopped with the shifting of hotels inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP) to other locations.
The airport stopped being operational after Tiger Tops Hotel, a hotel in the Chitwan National Park, had closed six years ago.
The airport lies some 30 kilometres west of Bharatpur was constructed in 2030 BS. Its infrastructures are in poor condition as it was closed for long.
The upgradation of Meghauli Airport can play a major role in Tourism Year 2020 as it lies near to Chitwan National Park.
Chitwan is listed as the third major tourist destination of the country. Sauraha is its major tourism town, followed by Meghauli that is famous for wildlife tourism as it lies adjacent to the CNP. Tourists also arrive here to enjoy the local culture.
