2nd Int'l airport possible in 4 years at $600 million

KATHMANDU, April 9: Nepal could bring much-talked about second international airport at Nijgadh in Bara district into operation in four years if the government arranged investment of $ 600 million (Rs 42 billion).

The picture became clear after Landmark Worldwide (LMW), a Korean company appointed to conduct a detailed feasibility study (DFS) finalized its report. The company is submitting the report to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Aviation (MoTCA) on Sunday.


The proposed airport site lies 150 kilometers from Kathmandu by road.

According to the report, the first phase of the airport can be completed by May 2015 with an investment of $600 million, provided the project gets implemented without any hiccups. It will be able to handle 15 million passengers annually along with A380 planes.

The Korean company has suggested to the government to go for second phase of construction only after properly analyzing the air traffic. If the traffic volume grew substantially within short span, the report says the airport could be expanded and completed by 2025, in the second phase.

By the end of the project, the airport will have two independent parallel runways and the total investment will touch around $1 billion.

"It´s difficult to forecast the construction of the airport 10 years ahead. Hence, we have left it for the government to decide whether to go for the second phase of construction analyzing the factors like passengers flow," said Country Representative of LMW, Binay B Rawal.

According to the report, the second international project will stretch in an area of 80 square kilometers out of which the 40 sq km will be airport. In the remaining area, the government plans to build well-equipped airport city.

LMW officials disclosed they had finished DFR by the end of January, when its deadline to submit the report expired. However, they had pushed the date of submission after the company had disagreement with the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) over the issue of construction.

Referring to the agreement MoTCA signed with the company, LMW officials said the ministry was supposed to hold discussion on crucial technical and investment issues prior to submitting the report.

"However, we still decided to hand over the report without due consultations as ministry officials did not respond to our repeated calls," said Rawal.

The agreement between MoTCA and LMW states that the government shall prioritize LMW for implementation of the project subject to section 9 of Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) Act.

Rawal said LMW had actually conducted DFR because the government then had assured it of giving high priority to it in a bid to develop the project. "We are still hopeful that the government will not backtrack on the commitment it made to the company that was seriously working to invest and develop the second international airport since 2007," he added.

After receiving the report, officials said the ministry will forward it to the BOOT Committee for review. "Once through, the committee will prioritize the project and forward it to the cabinet for further action," said Ranjan Krishna Aryal, joint secretary at the MoTCA.