Govt. must construct Int’l airport at Nijgadh’

Organising a press conference here Friday, the Association urged all the bodies concerned to be aware and answerable at a time when the conspiracy was hatched to not let the construction of the international airport in Bara under various pretexts.

Former Director General at the Department of Plants Resources, Rajdev Prasad Yadav, said although out of 8,045 hectares of forest was allocated by the government for the airport construction, the trees only in 1,550 hectares would be cut down. He expressed the view that the remaining area of the forest should be kept for the supply of timber.

Similarly, Nepal Foresters’ Association’s Ramananda Prasad Kurmi opined that the airport could be constructed at Nijgadh, causing little damages to the forest in the southern part of the East-West Highway. According to him, the forest stretching from the Parsa Wildlife Reserve to Murtiya in Sarlahi is a habitat of the wild elephants.

The government had conducted feasibility study of altogether nine places in the country for the construction of the international airport, a national pride project.

Although the study team had conducted the study in Simara, Nijgadh of Bara district, Murtiya of Sarlahi, Paanchkhal of Kavrepalanchwok and Biratnagar among others found Nijgadh forest as the best option.

All the stakeholder agencies were urged to create atmosphere favaourable to construct Nijgadh international airport in Bara district. RSS