Supreme Court decrees to stop construction of international airport in Nijgadh

May 26, Kathmandu: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ordered the Government of Nepal (GoN) to stop the construction of the international airport in Nijgadh.

A full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakashman Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma made such order in a writ petition filed in relation to the construction of an airport in Nijgadh.

The construction of the airport was disputed after reports surfaced that as many as 2.4 million trees needed to be chopped down for its construction

Former secretary Dwarikanath Dhungel, Ranjujajur Pandey Chhetri, Bijaykumar Singh Danuwar, Pankaj Kumar Karn and senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari had filed a writ petition over the issue on December 3, 2019.

Earlier on December 6, 2019, a single bench of Justice Tanka Bahadur Moktan had ordered to immediately stop the construction of the airport there.

In the writ petition, the petitioners had demanded that the construction be stopped since it would cause the destruction of old trees and destroy the habitat of endangered species like the Asian elephant and the Bengal tiger.