Nepalgunj Airport start upgraded

NEPALGUNJ, March 03: The upgradation of Nepalgunj Airport, which has the highest number of flights in western Nepal and is extremely busy, has been advanced.

After preparing a 20-year master plan to make the airport an international airport, the work has started accordingly.

According to the master plan, the construction of the new state-of-the-art terminal building has been started, informed Dhirendra Rizal, Information Officer of Civil Aviation Office, Nepalgunj. He said that although the work has started, the foundation stone of the terminal building will be formally laid soon.

According to the Civil Aviation Office, Nepalgunj, Sharma Construction has been entrusted with the construction of the new terminal building and has started the work unofficially. Sharma Construction has been entrusted with the task of completing the construction of the terminal building in a period of three years at a cost of three billion rupees.

The terminal building will be prepared in about eight thousand square feet. The terminal building will be built according to modern standards with customs, quarantine and immigration offices for both domestic and international flights. Currently, there are 50 to 60 flights per day, and the terminal building of the airport, which is about 50 years old, has become very small and dilapidated, so the need for a new terminal building is increasing.

Krishna Prasad Shrestha, President of Tourism Promotion Forum Banke, said that after the completion of the construction, flights between Nepalgunj-Delhi and Nepalgunj-Lucknow will be easy. According to the Civil Aviation Office, the airport, which can currently take off and land ATR aircraft, will be able to take off and land large aircraft within the next two decades if it works according to the master plan. According to the master plan, the runway of Nepalgunj Airport will be increased from 1,524 meters to 2,445 meters long. By doing so, an airport will be ready where large aircraft of the AirBus 320 neo model can be flown easily.

The land for the proposed international airport will be sufficient only after acquiring an additional 100 bighas of land for the airport, which currently has an area of 166 bighas. According to the plan, the construction of the airport will be completed in four phases. In the first phase, runway expansion, terminal building and other works will be done, while in the second phase, plans from airport expansion to infrastructure construction are included. The third and fourth phase of work will make Nepalgunj airport international.