POKHARA, June 5: All works related to internal infrastructure of the Pokhara Regional International Airport, a project of national pride have been completed. According to the project, the airport is fully ready for take-offs and landing after all the work of internal infrastructure was completed.
In case of emergency, it will now be possible to take off and land at the airport. Engineer Krishna Prasad Poudel, deputy manager of the project, informed Republica that all the work has been completed, fencing in half a kilometer area to the east and cleaning internal infrastructures.
“In some areas, there is no work left to do except fencing and internal cleaning. An A-grade airport has been built,” Poudel said, “An infrastructure worth taking pride in has been built.” He said that all the works in the plan have been completed except for the need to build additional structures.
Along with the construction of physical infrastructure, installment of equipment, testing, staff training and other works are also being done. Work is being done to make the staff accustomed to the training. Three fire extinguishers have also been brought to the airport.
“The Pokhara Regional International Airport is fully ready for operation. The work of the inner section has been completed except for the outer area,” Poudel said. “External work should be done by the bodies concerned.”
The then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone for the construction of Pokhara Regional International Airport on April 13, 2016. The Chinese construction company China CAMCE, which took over the construction of the airport on July 10, 2021 started work a year and a half after the foundation stone was laid.
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In the meantime, the coronavirus spread. However, the Chinese company continued to accelerate construction. The construction company handed over the airport to the Government of Nepal on March 26 this year after the completion of 93 percent of the work.
The deadline of the project, which was expected to complete by July 10, 2021, was extended for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The airport is now fully ready to operate before the date extension expires. Narrow-body Airbus 320 and Boeing 757-200 aircraft can take off and land at this airport.
These aircraft have a capacity of less than 200 seats. The airport can accommodate 11 aircraft - 3 large and 8 small aircraft. The runway of the airport is 2,500 meters long and 45 meters wide. The airport complex can accommodate 610 passengers per hour. Poudel said that there is an internal and international terminal building of 14,000 square meters.
Although the airport has been built, the fuel depot required for the aircraft has not been built on the premises. Poudel said that the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has assured to transport fuel from the current airport in Pokhara to the international airport. The distance between the two airports is about three kilometers. “The NOC has said that it will supply fuel from the current airport. For this, the corporation has also increased its fuel capacity,” he said, adding that there will be no disruption in fuel supply. However, government and local bodies are yet to do their bids.
The airport will come into operation only after the government completes the work on its behalf. The work to be done by the government body is to cut down the Rittepani hill of Lekhnath which is on the access road of the airplane, manage the landfill site near the airport, manage the flood that enters the airport, and widen the road to reach the airport.
The top of the Rittepani hill on the access road should be cut up to 40 meters. The process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is underway before cutting down the hill. Cutting of the hill does not start without an EIA approval. Even after the approval, the project officials estimate that it will take a few more months to start by inviting tenders.
Calibration flights will be possible only after flattening the hill by 14 meters. But for regular take-off and landing, the height of the hill needs to be tamed by 12 to 40 meter. About 600 trees will be felled while cutting the hill. Similarly, another problem of the airport is flood control. In the past, floods coming from the market area during the rainy season caused damage in the eastern part of the airport.
The project has increased the size of the canal for the management of the inner section of the canal while the external work is yet to be done, which is the responsibility of the Irrigation Department. Another major problem is relocating a nearby landfill site. Landfill site management is considered to be the biggest obstacle to the operation of the airport.
The landfill site at Banchebuduwa, which has been managing the city's waste for years, is just about two kilometers away from the airport. As the Pokhara Metropolitan City-14 is near the Bachchebuduwa landfill site, the animals and birds that come there in search of food also reach the airport.
From time to time flocks of vultures come to the runway area of the airport. Officials have been saying that flights will not operate until the landfill site is managed. Newly elected Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Dhanraj Acharya has said that immediate steps will be taken for waste management of the city. He said that landfill site management is a priority of the metropolis.
"We will immediately focus on landfill site management," he said. Acharya also had management of the landfill site in his election manifesto. He said that he will work to operate the airport within the next six months.
The construction of the airport is estimated to cost around Rs 22 billion. The Ministry of Finance has agreed to take this amount as a concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank). Planes can only land at this one-way approach airport from the east.
The airport has been built for planes to take off from the east. In the agreement between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and CAMCE, it was agreed to build the airport in the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) modality under 4D model as per the criteria set by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Four decades ago, 3,106 ropanis of land in Pokhara-14, 15 and 18 wards was acquired to build the airport. When that was not enough, an additional 521 ropanis of land was acquired. When that was not enough, the construction of the airport was started by acquiring an additional 60 ropanis of land to build a 10 km road around the airport.
