Balewa Airport again turns into grazing land

Laxmi Prasad Sapkota
Parbat, December 25 : The Baglung Airport also known as Balewa Airport in Baglung has, in less than one year of its resumption, again turned into a pasture land. The airport which was reopened after a long closure in March sees no flights since mid-June. The airport was originally opened in 2018 BS and was closed in 2048 BS with the Pokhara-Baglung road coming into operation.
It may be noted that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and the Baglung municipality on January 14, 2018 signed an agreement to reopen it and the Tara Air made its test flight here on March 14.
It is said that it was again with failing to find sufficient number of passengers. It has an unpaved runway and an eight kilometer gravel access road.
According to locals the ticket counter set up at the district headquarters based postal office nine months ago has been removed. As they said, they have seen no flight here since last mid-June.
Baglung municipality mayor Janak Raj Poudel said the airport could not be the choice of people as around eight kilometers gravel road connecting to it is not paved. Travelling in such road is not easier as in pitched road and it is risky during monsoon as it turns muddy and slippery.
The Nepal Army (NA) has taken the responsibility of widening the road remaining under the Kaligandaki corridor, but it seems that it will take years to complete the project.
The Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and the Tara Airlines had become ready to operate the flights by keeping refundable deposits of one million rupees each and the local government agreed to bear the loss in case of lack of sufficient passengers. The municipality has already paid around one million to each company for the loss.
Baglung municipality-14 ward chair Chakra Bahadur Khatri insisted on the need of continuing flights operation. Passengers would face no problems to use airport if the condition of access road was improvised, he added.
It takes eight to 10 hours to reach Kathmandu from here by road and the aged citizen, ill and those in want of emergency travel have expressed concern over the closure of flights to and from Balewa airport. It takes 45 minutes to reach Kathmandu via Pokhara from Balewa by flight.
Locals had made continuous efforts for three years for the airport construction in the past. It has runway 1,100-meter runway. The two airlines companies had agreed to operate two flights in a week- Sunday and Thursday.
Over 400 Salla trees were cut down to clear a space for the operation of the flight.
Locals suggested people concerned that they should take the airport operation issue as the issue of infrastructure development without politicizing it. RSS
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