Operation of Suntharali Airport remains repeated election promise

By Premraj Simkhada,Kalikot, Feb. 8: Political parties in Kalikot have used Suntharali Airport as a vote-winning promise in every election since 2007, but no aircraft has yet landed there. Although the airport was completed 37 years after construction began, its operation date remains uncertain.

Construction of Suntharali Airport began in 1985 (2042 BS). Even after the blacktopping work was completed, the airport had to wait another year for its formal inauguration.

The district’s only airport was finally inaugurated with much fanfare in 2023 (2080 BS), but not a single aircraft has landed there since. Despite this, the airport continues to feature prominently in election campaigns.

Leaders currently campaigning for elections have put forward new conditions for operating the airport. Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, a CPN leader who has been elected twice to the House of Representatives and once to the Provincial Assembly and has also served as Chief Minister, is now urging voters to re-elect him, saying a Manma-Kotwada cable car is necessary to make the airport operational.

The same leader who once said in a local radio interview that people of Kalikot could not afford to fly is now asking for votes by promising a cable car project. Other parties are also arguing that their victory is necessary to ensure regular flights.

More than Rs. 1 billion has been spent on the airport so far. Of this, Rs. 149.3 million, including VAT, was spent on blacktopping. Although the airport was inaugurated in 2023 after widespread pressure, no aircraft has landed there even once since then.

The airport, located in Naraharinath Rural Municipality-1 at Kotwada, also saw efforts by the local government to start regular flights. However, these attempts failed due to disagreements over commission-sharing between airline companies and agents.

Naraharinath Rural Municipality spokesperson Pradip Bohara said the plan could not succeed because of middlemen involved with airline companies. “Now, all parties are saying this will be their main election agenda. Let’s see,” he said.

Ratna Bahadur Shrestha, project chief of Suntharali Airport and a manager at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, told The Rising Nepal in February 2023 that aircraft would land at the airport in the near future. Within a year, only one aircraft landed, and regular flights have yet to begin.

The airport has a runway length of 640 metres and a width of 20 metres. It has two turning pads of 500 square metres each, a taxiway 25 metres long and 20 metres wide, and a parking area measuring 70 metres by 30 metres. The airport has been constructed to allow aircraft to land from both directions.