Kathmandu, May 2: The
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has formed a Technical
Study Team to recommend the government about the appropriate location to build
a domestic airport in Kavrepalanchowk district.
The team has a mandate
of 15 days to submit its findings to the ministry.
Following his site
visit to the three prospective areas – Nagidanda, Sano Thulichaur and Chisapani
Thulichaur - selected for the domestic airport in Dhulikhel Municipality of
Kavre on Tuesday, the MoCTCA had made a ministry-level decision to form a
six-member expert study team on Wednesday.
He had assured the
lawmakers from Kavre, local representatives and people that a domestic airport
would be built in Kavre and pledged to form an expert team within a couple of
days.
According to Ghanashyam
Upadhyaya, spokesperson of the MoCTCA, Kamal Kumar KC – a member of the Expert
Team recently formed by the ministry – will lead the team.
Members of the team are
Directors of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Dhruba Das Bhochhibhoya
and Babu Ram Poudyal, Deputy-Directors of CAAN Subarna Upadhyaya and Sita Ram
Bhandari, and CAAN’s Deputy Director General Nal Bikram Thapa is member-secretary.
In order to reduce the
traffic congestion at the Tribhuvan International Airport, a domestic airport
in Kavre was in talks for the last one-and-a-half decades.
“The traffic at the TIA is continuously increasing, which has forced the
aircraft to delay, divert and even cancel the flights. The new airport in
Dhulikhel can reduce about 20 per cent traffic at the TIA,” CAAN Director
General Sanjiv Gautam said.
The airport in Dhulikhel can be built at a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion to
Rs. 5 billion and will have a 800-1200m-long runway.
In his 100-day programme announced during his assumption of the post of
Tourism Minister, Adhikari had pledged to finalise a location for an
alternative domestic airport in and around the valley and conduct a feasibility
study.
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