The airport, which saw a crash of a Yeti Airlines flight on January 15, cannot host medium sized narrow body aircraft like A320 and B737 due to fuel and passenger restrictions and because night-landing facilities are yet to be operationalised. ET has learnt that the airport’s viability has raised questions in Nepal. While China has listed the airport as a BRI project, sections of the Nepalese administration have opposed it.
Chinese presence in the airport built with a $215.96 million loan from its Exim Bank, however, can give Beijing strategic depth against India. Several locations in Uttar Pradesh are close to Pokhara by air. It is a little over 300 km by road from Gorakhpur which houses a major Indian Air Force base. The airport is less than 20 minutes to Gorakhpur by commercial flight and under 10 minutes by fighter aircraft. A direct commercial flight from New Delhi to Pokhara will take less than an hour. A Chinese PLA jet, if stationed in Pokhara, can reach India’s capital in a shorter span of time.
Civil aviation experts in Nepal feel that the airport will not be able to attract much traffic and will incur huge losses. Almost the entire money loaned to Nepal for the project by China’s Exim Bank went into the coffers of China’s CAMC Engineering Company, which bagged the contract for the construction of the airport. If Nepal fails to repay the loan, Beijing could arm-twist Kathmandu into offering the airport to it on a long lease for China’s exclusive use. China is also reportedly pushing Nepal to allow construction of hotels, resorts and vacation homes exclusively for Chinese citizens in Pokhara.
For all the latest world News Click Here
