Kathmandu, December 23: The Supreme Court (SC) has issued an interim order barring the stakeholders not to cut the trees for the construction of Nijgadh International Airport.
A division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR and Justice Kumar Regmi yesterday made the order in the name of the government bodies. Prior to this, the SC on 6 December had ordered to put the job of cutting trees on the site on hold. The SC had summoned both the sides for discussions over the issue on Sunday. Former secretary Dwarikanath Dhungel, senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari, former member of the National Planning Commission Prabhu Budhathoki and Bharat Basnet had filed a writ at the SC on behalf of the Nijgadh forest conservation committee.
Earlier on 11 November, the SC had also directed the government to submit the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report and other documents. However, the government had already approved the EIA report from the Ministry of Forest and Environment two years ago for the construction of the second international airport in Nijgadh of Bara district.