Juphal Airport, the only medium of transportation in Dolpa district has been receiving disruption in flight operation due to parking congestion problem.
According to the airport officials, due to parking congestion, the aircraft are enforced to park at Emergency Parking bay.
Juphal airport has 560 meters long runway where the parking bay is of only 60 meters long and 40 meters wide. According to the source, due to lack of sufficient land, there is difficulty in expanding the parking area. If the marking is done properly in current parking bay then it can accommodate four aircraft at once.
The expansion of parking area has been problematic as the security base camp was built near the police station at past.
According to the airport officials, the parking bay could be expanded and it could accommodate at least 6 aircraft but due to police station near to parking bay the project can’t be initiated as the station cannot be removed immediately.
Pilots have been complaining about the parking congestion problem. Because of Himalaya regions, the aircraft can’t be held in the sky and have to park outside the parking area.
However, the authority has planned to construct Helipad which can also park aircraft near to parking bay because usually helicopter doesn’t operate there.
Previously the airport was closed for accomplishing the black topping job of the runway.
At present, Sita Air, Tara Air, Summit Air, Makalu Air and Nepal Airlines have been conducting flights to the airport. Nepal Airlines conduct a flight weekly whereas other airlines conduct 2 flights in a day.
