The door for construction of Pokhara International Airport Opens.
Jun 06, 2016 – Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the responsible authority for the construction of Pokhara International Airport and Nepal Government has undergone a loan sub-agreement for the completion of the project. Ministry of Finance, for the construction of the international airport in Pokhara will provide loan of 22 Billion rupees to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal for an interest rate of 5% per annum.
The same amount was provided as a loan to Nepal Government by Chinese Bank, Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) as a simplified loan on 2% interest rate for the 75% of the loan amount. The rest 25% of the loan amount was provided free of interest. Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Woli made the agreement of loan with Chinese Authority during his recent visit to China. CAAN will need to make payment of the installment interest to Ministry every 1st day of Chaitra and 1st of Aswin.
The sub-agreement illustrates the deadline for CAAN to pay the first installment to Ministry until Chaitra 2079 and to make the payment of last installment until Aswin 2092 Director of CAAN Sanjeev Gautam informed that the designing process will be carried out in the first phase and followed by detail designing. And afterwards the filling and leveling of the ground will be carried out on Aswin this year.
The duration of the loan for CAAN is 20 years and for the first 7 years CAAN will not need to pay any amount of the loan but all the loan amount needs to be paid until the end of the remaining 13 years according to the Ministry. The construction of the new international airport has already been handed over to Chinese company CAMC Engineering. A 13 membered team led by the project manager of the company has already landed Pokhara and started the preliminary researches and studies of the site since last week. The team informed that the construction process will only begin after Aswin as monsoon for this year has already startrd. They also illustrated that the Airport will be made according to ECP (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) Model.
This Chinese construction company has also worked in this model for the construction of airports in African countries however this model of construction will be first implied for Nepal in Pokhara. The whole construction will be based on the design of the same construction company.
CAMC construction was handed over this project among the 10 construction companies that applied for global tender demanded by CAAN in 2069 Baisakh according to their technical and economic performance. The company has agreed to finish the construction process in 4 years from the date of commencement.
This airport soon to be constructed in Pokhara will be ‘Medium Ranged’. Airbus 320 series aircraft and Boeing 757, 737 series aircraft will be able to operate here to the medium range destinations of 5 to 6 hours flight like various cities of India, China including Bangkok, Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Hong Kong, Bhutan, etc. The aircraft have capacity to travel 150 to 200 travelers in 1 leg of flight. The paragliding flights that are taking place in Pokhara right now will be affected after this airport starts to operate.
