Preliminary conclusion of the parliamentary sub-committee: There are many suspicions of irregularities at Pokhara Airport

A team of 11 MPs and 2 staff members, led by the coordinator of the sub-committee and RPP chairman Rajendra Prasad Lingden, came to Pokhara on Sunday and started the investigation. The sub-committee met with the staff of Pokhara International Airport Project and Civil Aviation Office, Pokhara. The historical background of the airport, total investment in construction (foreign loan, subsidy, domestic), the need and justification of construction, errors in construction, capacity and expansion of the airport, ensuring return according to the purpose, challenges of regular operation of the airport, future action plan including ensuring the use of the airport construction according to the purpose. Vinesh Munkarmi gave a presentation to the team. The

sub-committee held a question and answer session with the staff of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAN), then head of the airport project. Problems and challenges of the financial, technical, physical, structural and social aspects of the international airport, the basis of whether this airport is an international level airport or not in terms of technology, whether or not the airport operation will be interrupted unless the height of the water tank near the airport is reduced by 20 meters, the height of the runway will be increased by 10 feet. The sub-committee inquired with the director general of the authority Pradeep Adhikari, the airport project chief Munkarmi.

The sub-committee was curious about the usefulness of the old airport, the efforts made so far in relation to international airport operations, aspects of financial management, efforts in relation to strategic partners, the condition of financial interest, and the assessment of how many years after the airport operation, the break-even point will be reached. The sub-committee understood that even after the construction of the international airport was completed, there were problems such as its structural aspects such as the toilet of the VIP room was very narrow and only one was kept, the runway was narrow and short.

Civil Aviation Authority Director General Pradeep Adhikari could not give a clear answer before the sub-committee. He, who has also been the head of the airport construction project, got up and left in the middle of the meeting on Monday. Coordinator Lingden said that there were irregularities in the construction of the airport from the beginning and that there are still some errors. He said that there was no clear answer from the authority on the question of which body examined whether it is right to have a loan agreement of 22 billion rupees and now the investment has increased to 27-28 billion rupees, while the cost was estimated at 15 billion rupees. The project has been started without a business plan. No international flight. It is now known that the wide body ship cannot come," he said before returning to Kathmandu on Tuesday after three days of on-site study. Therefore, there is a lot of suspicion of irregularities.'' He pointed out the need to bring in a technical team and study more about whether the work is done according to the contract or not. He said that after returning to Kathmandu, the Public Accounts Committee meeting will be held and the sub-committee will announce its views. "They seem to be involved in irregularities in the investigation and they should be punished and there should be a system to prevent any such irregularities from now on," he said. "Importantly, international flights should start in Pokhara." After that, a parliamentary committee was formed to investigate. The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives formed two separate sub-committees on June 13 to investigate the overall aspect and submit a report with opinions, including the suspicion of financial irregularities during the construction of Pokhara and Bhairahawa Airports. Both the sub-committees were given time to submit their reports within a maximum of one month.

The sub-committee formed under the coordination of Lingden has Congress leader Arjunnar Singh KC, UML leader Gokulprasad Baskota, Maoist leader Janardan Sharma, Tara Lama Tamang, Tejulal Chaudhary, Deepak Giri, Devprasad Timalsina, Prem Bahadur Ale, Ramakrishna Yadav, Rukmini Rana Barailly and Lekhnath Dahal as members. The sub-committee was mandated to study/investigate the overall situation from how the demand proposal was started to the master plan, cost/contract, construction till now and submit a report with opinion on the need for an international airport.

The Pokhara International Airport project started from 2074/75 and will be completed in 2077/78, but the project was scheduled to be completed in 2079/80 with a delay of 2 years. In which 25 billion 34 crore rupees were shown. After the completion of the project, 500 hectares of land from Manipal, Seti River and Kahunkhola, 4 km to the north outside the airport area, during the rainy season, the water coming from the inner road and Prithvi Highway drains and irrigation canals entered the airport area. is mentioned.

When the airport was built, it is said that the runway was 6 meters deep when the ground was dug up and the soil had to be filled from elsewhere. Technicians have been saying that even when the runway is deep, international flights will be affected. As the runway is deep, the height of the water tank built one and a half kilometers away on the west side has also come to be reduced.

Pokhara Airport is an airport built with the Chinese government's 22 billion loan investment. Currently, no international flights have been made from the airport, which was built as a project of national pride. In the discussion with the sub-committee held on Monday, the stakeholders of Pokhara said that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAN) is reluctant to start international flights from Pokhara. Anandraj Mulmi, the former president of the Federation of Commerce and Industry, said that CAN was biased against Pokhara. He accused CAN of not doing so as it should take the initiative to bring them from other countries until regular flights from India can take place.

The former president of Pokhara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vishwashankar Palikhe said that the authority should be investigated. "Cans were a hindrance to flying to Pokhara, now they are still a problem," he said, "It's a matter of corruption and corruption, Pokhareli wants to see international flights." Said to be regular. He mentioned that the authority should take the initiative to start flights from China until it starts from India.

Dhanraj Acharya, head of Pokhara Metropolitan Municipality, suggested that the sub-committee submit a report so that it can be decisive and implemented. He said that the sub-committee should take necessary steps to operate regular international flights in Pokhara, which has been declared the capital of tourism. Chief Minister of Gandaki Province Surendraraj Pandey said that not only Pokhreli but the entire Gandaki Province residents were forced to answer when they asked when they would have an international flight. "People complain to me, where do I go to complain?," he said, "Because it is a federal plan, there is no authority for the province to give an opinion about the airport." The General Accounting Office has directed the government to bring the airport into operation in coordination with various countries and airlines.

The foundation stone of the airport was laid by then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Baisakh 2073 and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on 17th December 2017. 25 billion 34 million rupees have been spent in Pokhara to build the airport. However, there are no international flights from this airport, which was built at the expense of such a huge amount of money. Pokhara International Airport, which is spread over 3 thousand 899 ropani land, has not been able to have any commercial flights. Apart from 14 two-way charter flights, no international flights took place in Pokhara in one and a half years. Although it is said that Bangladesh Airlines is willing to fly directly to Pokhara, there is still no meaningful dialogue.

President Ramchandra Paudel, announcing the government's annual policies and programs, announced that a 'special incentive package' would be arranged for the operation of Bhairahawa and Pokhara International Airports. However, there is still confusion as to when international flights will start from the airport.