Calibration flight at Pokhara International Airport

POKHARA, Dec 10: An emergency rescue exercise has been conducted at the Pokhara International Airport, which is going to be put into operation from  January 1st. Pokhara International Airport Civil Aviation Office conducted an emergency rescue exercise at the airport on Friday as part of the pre-opening operation.

According to Anup Joshi, spokesperson of Pokhara International Airport Civil Aviation Office, 600 people including Nepali Army, Armed Police, Nepal Police, and health workers participated in the rescue exercise.

According to him, this kind of rescue exercise is done every two years, but it was done for the first time before the airport was put into operation. Joshi said, "In the event of a plane crash at the airport, a preliminary exercise has been conducted to see how the rescue work can be made effective. Such exercises help in how to 'handle' it after the incident and reduce the loss of human wealth.

Mechanical flight (calibration flight) was conducted at Pokhara International Airport from 5th to 12th November. Spokesperson Joshi said that the mechanical flight test report has not been received.

Although the work of cutting Rithepanidanda, which is a challenge for airport operations, has started, the transfer of the landfill site has not yet been completed. The authority said that out of 40 meters of Rithepani, 14 meters have been cut and they are confident that all the work will be completed in the remaining period.

Although the Pokhara metropolis has promised to remove the landfill site near the airport, garbage is still being dumped in the same place. Even though the metropolis has searched for a location for the landfill in different wards of the metropolis, it has not been finalized yet.

Pokhara International Airport was built by the Chinese construction company CAMCE. Earlier last year, the airport was handed over to Nepal on the occasion of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Nepal. At that time, some works of the airport were yet to be completed.

The airport was built with the help of Rs 22 billion concessional loans and grants from China's Exim Bank. Although the land was acquired for the airport in 2032, the construction was barely started after four decades. The foundation stone of the airport was laid in the year 2073 BS., but the construction started from the year 2074 BS.