Panchthar, October 24

Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said construction of Aathrai airport would gain traction now.

Though the process for construction of the airport had started many years ago, there had not been any significant progress. Today, the minister monitored the site of the proposed airport and informed about the government’s plan to complete the project in the next three years.

“After preparing the DPR, a notice has been published for preliminary environment impact assessment. We’ll start construction in six months after completing the paper work,” he said, adding the project was expected to be completed in three years’ time.

“As the airport can’t be viable by just carrying people, I want the locals to cultivate fruits and vegetables here, so that they can export the produce elsewhere via air,” he told the locals present.

“As the then tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari had died on his return after making a feasibility study of the airport, we need to materialise the airport construction project, at least to honour the late leader,” he opined.