During the season, tourists will be taken to Lukla from Phaplu Airport
As an alternative to Manthali Airport, a refueling center will be set up at Phaplu Airport for the base airport going to Lukla. There is a flight from Manthali to reach Lukla, the world's highest peak Everest region. Due to the deterioration of the weather, the tourists had to suffer due to the lack of tourist infrastructure, and the stakeholders started the initiative to make the Phaplu airport a base airport.
A 'refueling center' for airplanes has been set up in Phaplu and the plan to fly foreign tourists to Lukla from here has been advanced . For this, Solududhakund municipality and private airline company Tara Air have previously submitted an application to Nepal Oil Corporation. During the feasibility study for the construction of 'refueling center' in Sohibmojam, the corporation's team came to Faplu and said that a temporary 'refueling center' can be set up within 3 months .
'We have studied the road network to the airport and the availability of land,' said Jagdishchandra Yadav, deputy director of the corporation, 'We can put up a temporary structure like the one at Manthali Airport within three months, but for the permanent structure, the budget will have to be arranged in the next financial year.'
Tourists can reach Phaplu in a journey of 8-9 hours on a 265 km black road from Kathmandu. Even when the weather deteriorates, the hotels in Patta, Salleri and Phaplu have become facilities for tourists to stay. It takes 20 minutes by boat to reach Lukla from Manthali and 9 minutes from Phaplu. Namgelzangbu Sherpa, the head of Solududhakund Municipality, said that for the convenience of tourists and for the development of tourism in Lower Solu, there is a demand that Phaplu Airport should be made the base airport of Lukla. "Thousands of tourists are stranded in Manthali due to lack of accommodation when the weather deteriorates. At least if there is a Phaplu base airport, even if there is no flight due to weather deterioration, you can reach Lukla in 5-6 hours by car," Sherpa said.
After the establishment of the air fuel center, the tourism professionals believe that Phaplu Airport will become a tourist center . Tourism expert Bachunarayan Shrestha said that this will start a new era in the promotion of Himalayan tourism. "This work will also help in the promotion of tourism in Lower Solu," he said. Due to the high pressure at Kathmandu Airport, Ramechhap's Manthali Airport is being used to take foreigners to Lukla during the tourist season.
