The Nepal Finance Minister had recently met Gautam Adani in Gujarat at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and invited him to explore investments in Nepal, while assuring full government support.
Adani Group has assured to take up construction of new airports in Nepal particularly near India-Nepal border and taking over the management of the Bhairawaha International Airport, Tribhuwan International Airport among others.
“I also invited him (Adani) to participate in the upcoming Nepal Investment Summit to be organised by the government of Nepal in April. He has committed that he will try his best to attend the summit,” Mahat told IANS.
Nepal has recently built two international airports in Bhairawaha and Pokhara but they have failed to conduct regular flights after India refused to provide air space for Nepali flights to operate.
The Pokhara International Airport was built with a Chinese loan while the airport in Bhairawaha was built with a loan extended by the Asian Development Bank but built by the Chinese contractors. “The new airport in Nijgadh is expected to cost around $ 6.7 billion. We are ready to operate the international airports in Bhairawaha and will construct the airport in Nijgadh,” Mahat said. “A team of Adani Group had recently visited Kathmandu and held talks with Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Pradip Adhikari and discussed the possibility of investing in Nepal’s airport sector,” Mahat said.
He said that after being unable to operate the Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) and Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA), which were built with loans, CAAN has decided to bring the private sector into the operation of three international airports including the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport.
