Landing at Khapaudi on Phewa shore as before, flight time also increased
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With the opening of Pokhara International Airport, paragliding, which has been banned from flying over Phewa Lake, will resume operations. The Civil Aviation Authority has given permission to land at Khapaudi (End of the Lake) on the Phewa shore as before.
Earlier, paragliding flights started from Sarangkot and flew over Phewatal and landed at Khapaudi. After the airport came into operation, it was shifted to Mandredhunga at an aerial distance of 5 km due to air safety. The
landing site was also shifted from Khapaudi to Pame. After being shifted from Sarangkot, paragliding was not allowed over Phewatal, so the number of people taking flights dropped drastically. Businessmen felt some relief when the airport shifted from Mandredhunga to Toripani to the east last year, but the landing site remained at Pame.
Businessmen expect that the paragliding business will return to its old rhythm after the landing site is moved to Khapaudi. The flight time of paragliding has also been increased. Earlier it was only from 11 am to 3 pm, but from Thursday it will be possible to fly till 4:30 pm.
According to Khemraj Acharya, the vice president of Nepal Air Sports Association (NAS), before the airport came into operation, 1,000 tourists were paragliding daily, but after the flight and landing site was moved, the number decreased to around 100.
Even para pilots who were in number of 400 were reduced to 250. Of the 63 paragliding companies, 10 were displaced. "This business, which has provided direct employment to around 2500 people, has reached a sick state," he says. "Paragliding had reached a state of displacement," he says, "with the help of the authority, the business has come to a state of survival." He says that two-way radio communication technology and GPS are used for paragliding flight safety.
After receiving permission to fly at the former site, a joint project of the Air Sports Organization and the Nepal Paragliding Pilots Club held a paragliding orientation training and interaction on the role of paragliding in tourism development in Pokhara on Wednesday. In the
program, Pokhara Metropolitan Chief Dhanraj Acharya said that after the approval of the authority, the paragliding business will be re-arranged and he believes that it will help Pokhara's economy. He informed that an international paragliding competition is going to be organized at the initiative of the metropolis to convey the message that paragliding is safe.
President of Pokhara Tourism Council Taranath Pahari mentions that it is nice to see the airport return to its old condition and says that single flights should also be opened. Solo flying has been stopped since Niseem Thapa died in a paragliding accident during the ninth National Games.
Yogendra Kunwar, air traffic controller of Pokhara International Airport, said that the authority has decided in favor of paragliding businessmen. He said that the local government and other stakeholders should play a role to make paragliding flight safe.
