Dhangadi, May 25

A plane belonging to Summit Air conducted a successful test flight at Achham’s Sanfebagar airport today.

It was for the first time in the last 13 years that a plane landed at the airport.

With the completion of black topping and runway work, a 19-seater plane of Summit Air from Humla’s Simikot landed at Sanfebagar 10:30am today.  The airport whose construction started in 1967 came into operation from 1975. The airport operated regularly from 1975 to 2001 until the then CPN-Maoist combatants destroyed the tower at Sanfebagar airport in 2001. Though the airport resumed its operation, the airport was closed down completely since 2006. The closure had turned the airport into a grazing field.

Construction company, Amar Construction, stated that the airport was almost ready to resume flights. The 500-metre long and 20-metre wide runway has been black-topped at the cost of Rs 110 million. Achham has two airports — one at Sanfebagar and another at Kamalbazar. However, both the airports are not in operation. Locals are hopeful that operation of the Sanfebagar airport will make their life easier.