People of Pokhara gather around PRIA for inauguration

Published On: January 1, 2023 02:18 PM NPT By: Santosh Pokharel

POKHARA, Jan 1: The Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) is coming into operation officially from today. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is inaugurating the airport. Top leaders of other political parties have also come to Pokhara along with the Prime Minister.

Although it was said that there would be regular flights at the international airport from early morning and the inauguration program would start after 11 o'clock, the arrival of the Prime Minister was delayed because the airport was not open due to bad weather. Due to the weather, the airport was only opened around 12:00. Prime Minister Dahal landed in Pokhara on a Buddha Air flight.

Aircraft of Sourya, Buddha, Yeti and Guna Airlines have landed at the airport, which has been operating since Sunday. Now thousands of Pokhara residents have gathered outside the international airport to celebrate the occasion.

The Pokhara Metropolitan city ordered the closure of all educational institutions in Pokhara on Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of the airport. The then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had laid the foundation stone of PRIA on 1st Baisakh 2073 ( Nepali New Year). According to the initial agreement, the Chinese company China CAMCE, which took over the construction of the airport, started work one and a half years after the foundation stone was laid. Meanwhile, the coronavirus spread. However, the Chinese company continued to speed up the construction. The construction company handed over the infrastructure of the airport to Nepal after 93 percent of the work was completed in the third week of March last year despite the difficulties of the pandemic.

After nearly seven and a half decades of the Tribhuvan International Airport coming into operation, the Gautam Buddha International Airport built in Bhairahawa came into operation last May. Eight months after the addition of the second airport, PRIA has been operational since Sunday as the third international airport in Nepal. With PRIA coming into operation, people of Pokhara are happy that the dream of an international airport that Pokhara saw almost five decades ago has been realized.