Simkot Airport expansion delays

By Rajan Rawat,Humla, Mar. 17: Expansion of the Simkot Airport has been stalled for a year due to lack of government funding.

Although the district has prepared the necessary documents, the project has not moved forward because land acquisition is required, and the government has not allocated the necessary budget.

Mahendra Bahadur Singh, Chief of the Simkot Branch of the Civil Aviation Authority, said that despite two years of preparation, including documentation and other formalities, the expansion has not progressed even in the current fiscal year. 

He said that since private land needed to be acquired for the expansion, the lack of government funding had resulted in the halt.

The government had previously secured resources for the expansion of Jumla and Surkhet airports and other new projects in Karnali. However, Simkot Airport was not included in the government’s priority. 

He said that 150 meters of additional land needed to be acquired for the airport expansion, and all necessary records had been documented. 

He informed that the expansion work needed 60.81 square meters of land. 

All district-level procedures for the acquisition have been completed, but due to budget constraints, the work could not progress this year, he added. 

The expansion plan includes extending the airport by 300 meters, 150 meters from newly acquired land and 150 meters from the existing area.

Additionally, nine private houses on the western side of the airport will be affected, said Singh. 

“If the work had started this fiscal year, the compensation cost would have been Rs. 290 million. However, due to the delay, the costs are expected to rise in the next fiscal year,” he said.