KATHMANDU: Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) will be closed for seven hours daily for the second phase of airport rehabilitation from Sunday.

Landing and take-off of all flights at the country's only international airport will be halted from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am, from September 1 to December 31, for the duration of four months, confirmed General Manager of TIA, Raj Kumar Chhetri.

Taxiway rehabilitation, taxiway-runway link road rehabilitation, and installation of runway centreline light will be carried out under the second phase, Chhetri informed.

However, the closure will not affect the Kathmandu-Osaka direct flight of Nepal Airlines which began on August 29. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays -- when the NA flight to Japan will be operated -- the runway will open for half an hour from 2:00 am to 2:30 am to allow the flight to take off, explained Chettri.

During the first stage of rehabilitation, TIA had been shut down for 10 hours a day from April 1, 2019, for a period of three months.

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TIA sees around 400 flights, including 100 international flights, per day. The international airport's runway was built in 1975. Runways of international airports, as per the international standard, should be refurbished with the use of new bitumen every 10 years.