Int'l airport built with Chinese assistance, donations inaugurated in Nepal

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday inaugurated the country's third international airport, built in the backdrop of the Annapurna Mountain Range with Chinese loans and donations.

The third International airport of the Himalayan nation has been inaugurated in the tourist valley as the previous airport had no proper infrastructure and also failed to provide an air route via India. The airport had inadequate hotels in the surroundings for stay and no proper transport.

Nepal earlier in 2022 had inaugurated another airport, the Gautam Buddha International Airport built in Siddharthanagar near the Indian border. The airport is barely getting international fliers though it was expected to act as a supplement to Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) in the capital Kathmandu.

While inaugurating the airport amid a ceremony, the Prime Minister claimed that airports would connect the land-locked nation with the rest of the world, working as effective means of transportation.

"The Pokhara International Airport has been inaugurated today. With this, the city now is in connection with the international market," Dahal announced.

The Prime Minister added, "Soon we will start construction of Nijgadh International Airport" referring to the airport that has been ordered by the court not to be built. The Apex Court earlier this decade had delivered a verdict ordering halt in construction as the airport would damage vegetation in the Southern plains of the nation.

In the race of building and inaugurating airports across Nepal, the Himalayan Nation has taken a soft loan from China amounting to 215.96 million USD in March of 2016. The Civil Authority of Nepal and the China EXIM Bank had signed the agreement where China CAMC Engineering was given the construction contract.

China's Exim Bank had agreed to provide 25 per cent of the loan free of interest and set the interest rate at two per cent per annum for the rest of the amount, with a payback period of 20 years.

Though the Prime Minister inaugurated the airport on the 1st of January coinciding with the English New Year, International flights to and fro the airport are expected to start from the second week of February.

Though the air routes via India are due, the race to build and inaugurate International airports has soared high in Nepal. Both the airports are waiting for the Southern neighbour's nod to get air routes to keep airlines on the air.

The 2nd international airport- Gautam Buddha International airport inaugurated seven months earlier is also unable to gain pace. In due course of time, only 31,618 passengers landed and took off from the airport.

The airport is now planning to suspend flights citing a low turnout of passengers. The Himalaya Airlines, a private Nepali international flyer in late December 2022 announced the suspension of chartered flights within just a month and a half after starting its business.

The company started its chartered flight to Malaysia from the international airport on November 3.

"We are forced to make the decision because of the low number of passengers," Vijay Shrestha, vice-chairman of Himalaya Airlines said.

The airlines had begun the chartered flight after the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN)'s compulsory provision on airlines that operates three international flights from the Tribhuvan International Airport a day should run the service from the much-hyped airport.

Prior to this, Jazeera Airways, which was supposed to start daily flights instead reduced the number of flights from the airport in less than a month after starting its services in September.

The country's second international airport incurred a total construction cost of US $76.1 million. Of the amount, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has invested around US $37 million in loans and grants, while the OPEC Fund for International Development contributed about $11 million in loans. The government funded the remaining amount.

The Gautam Buddha International Airport has been put under question regarding the economic viability of air passengers who wish to travel through the airport.

Passengers have been forced to incur extra costs when they fly to Kathmandu from Bhairahawa.

The airport officially came into operation on May 16, 2022. At present, only Jazeera Airways is running three flights a week there. Despite various incentives offered by the government to airlines companies flying from the airport, hardly any company has shown interest.