Trilochan Bhatta, Chief Minister of Sudurpashchim Pradesh, a province in far-western Nepal has directed the concerned officials to complete the repair and maintenance of the Dhangadhi Airport at the specified time.
Chief Minister Bhatta inspected the airport yesterday (May 26) and directed the airport officials and construction companies to complete the renovation work at the scheduled time.
He asked the reason for delay in the work, saying, “The state government is ready to coordinate and help anytime but we should not holdup the renovation work.”
Chief Minister Bhatta urged the concerned bodies to boost up the speed of work by increasing manpower or technology.
With the Chief Minister, Maya Bhatta, Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of the Far-western region were also present during the visit.
Yogendra Raj Sharma, Engineer of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) stated that though the renovation of the runway was conducted but the construction work are still left more than specified work which has taken more time and could not achieve its pace though the airport remained closed for past 20 days.
However, the closure of the airport is expected to be extended.
Dhangadhi Airport, located at western Nepal was closed from May 5th for renovation of the airport runway and was scheduled to be closed for 1 month.
Likewise, the airport has only attended 27 to 30 percent of work till now.
The runway of Dhangadhi Airport is the second biggest runway after the runway of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
According to CAAN, the runway will expand 2-2 meters in each side and 30m wide and 1800 m long will be blacktopped.
At nearly 220 Million of investment, the airport’s runway and parking area will be renovated and the project was awarded to Lumbini, Koshi, and Neupane, Khadka, Koirala JB Kathmandu.
Dhangadhi Airport is the only big airport situated in the far western region which has facilitated citizens of nearly 9 districts.
