SURKHET: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation has requested the Finance Ministry to secure Rs 11 billion for the expansion of three key airports in Karnali and Lumbini Provinces.
The proposed funding aims to enhance Surkhet and Jumla airports in Karnali Province and Tarigaon Airport in Dang, Lumbini Province. This comes after the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) recommended land acquisition to improve airport capacity, prompting the Council of Ministers to approve financial guarantees on Monday.
The ministry’s proposal includes an estimated cost of Rs 5 billion for acquiring land to expand Tarigaon Airport in Dang, with an initial allocation request of Rs 10 million and an additional financial guarantee of Rs 990 million.
Similarly, Rs 5 billion has been estimated for land acquisition and expansion of Surkhet Airport, for which the Finance Ministry has been asked to allocate Rs 100 million and ensure an additional resource guarantee of Rs 4.90 billion.
The expansion of Jumla Airport has been estimated to cost Rs 1 billion, with Rs 100 million requested as an initial allocation and an additional Rs 400 million in guaranteed funds.
The Karnali Province government, under the leadership of former Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, had once envisioned launching its own provincial air service, ‘Karnali Airlines,’ to improve connectivity within the remote region.
However, the plan remains stalled due to financial and logistical challenges. Shahi’s administration had also proposed constructing a high-altitude airport in Mugu and an international-standard airport in Surkhet. A Chinese company, North West, had even conducted a feasibility study free of cost for the project, but progress has been minimal.
While Kathmandu-Surkhet-Kathmandu currently has four daily flights, the number of flights to Upper Karnali has significantly declined. In 2021, the province government had proposed extending Surkhet Airport’s runway to 1,500 meters to facilitate night flights, but that initiative has yet to materialize.
With this renewed financial request, the government’s commitment to improving aviation infrastructure in Lumbini and Karnali Provinces will be put to the test.
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