November 17: The construction of an international airport in Pokhara, which is a national pride project, has finally begun two years after laying the foundation stones.

The airport will be built by a Chinese company, CAMC Engineering, with a loan support of Rs 22 billion from Ex-Im Bank of China. As per the contract with the Chinese company, the construction of the project should be complete by the end of June 2021.

According to Pradip Adhikari, a chief engineer at the project, all of the equipment like dozers, excavators, loaders, tippers, among others have already been brought to the construction site.

“There are more than one dozen equipment and 100 workers for the construction works,” he added.

Once the construction gets completed, aircrafts like Boeing-757, Airbus-320, among others can operate from the airport.  The runway of the airport will be 2,500 meters long, and 45 meters wide. A total of 6,935 ropanis of land has been acquired by the government  for the construction of the airport.