The International Relations Committee of the parliament has instructed the government to move works related to the Nijgadh International Airport forward.
The committee’s meeting at the Singha Durbar on Monday has instructed the government to do the necessary legal, administrative and practical works to move development of the airport forward calling the airport essential from the perspective of national security and interests, and economic development.
It has also remarked that the decision to stop the project of national pride that has been moved forward after a long study and big investment does not seem appropriate in any way.
Hearing petitions filed pointing that the forest at Nijgadh will be destroyed while constructing the airport, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday had ordered the government to construct the airport elsewhere if it were necessary.
Lawmakers had protested the SC verdict even in the House of Representatives (HoR).
The International Relations Committee of the HoR includes lawmakers including CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and CPN-UML leader Bhim Rawal among others.
Both the lawmakers have been raising questions about the court verdict on the airport.
The extended full bench of SC on Thursday after hearing the writ petitions filed by multiple petitioners had revoked the government’s decision to build the airport, the Forest Ministry’s Environmental Impact Assessment, and the decision to hand over 8,045 hectares of forest area to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The extended full bench including Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwore Prasad Khatiwada, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Manoj Kumar Sharma issued a mandamus to revoke the government’s decision to construct the airport at Nijgadh and asked it to build an international airport finding an appropriate place.
