They said they would now launch "more intense" capital-centric protests in order to get their demand for construction of PRIA fulfilled. The stakeholders committee ended the hunger strike by distributing fruit juice to protestors. Local political leaders were present on the occasion.[break]
"A total of 2,402 people participated in our hunger strike for 153 days," Krishna Mohan Shrestha, president of the PRIA Stakeholders Committee. Though the number of participants, which included tourism entrepreneurs, local political leaders, professionals and youths, was huge, Shrestha said the government did not pay heed to their demand.
"It is a shame that the government has turned blind to our protests. We will now launch more effective protests at the central level," he said.
Shrestha said the committee would make the details of fresh protests public in a few days. He also urged the government to select the contractor and take ahead the construction of the PRIA immediately.
Locals of Pokhara have been staging protests mainly after the PRIA construction process failed to take momentum due to lack of political commitment and the higher cost quoted by the bidders for construction of the airport.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has said that the lowest cost quoted by the bidder is double the cost it had estimated earlier and that this has made the project unviable.
According to CAAN officials, the authority had estimated the PRIA Project to cost US$ 175 million, but the lowest price quoted by China CAMC is US $305.13 million. The government was preparing to construct the airport under EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) model with soft loans from China.
The government had acquired 3,106 ropanis of land at Chhinedanda in 1975 for the construction of the airport.
The locals had called off their protests following assurance from Tourim Minister Post Bahadur Bogati to take a concrete decision regarding the airport within two weeks.
Locals blame conspiracy at the political and diplomatic level for the delay in execution of the project. The committee has already organized Pokhara airport shutdown, Pokhara banda and picketing of Singhadurbar as the part of their protests to exert pressure on the government.
The committee has also received assistance of Rs 863,000 to intensify protests.
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