KATHMANDU: Sher Bahadur Deuba, Prime Minister of Nepal inaugurated the country’s second international airport on May 16. The USD 76 million Gautam Buddha International Airport has been built by China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group. It will connect Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and a major tourist and pilgrimage destination, to Buddhist circuits in South Asia as well as to the rest of the world.
The new airport located in Bhairahawa is at distance of 19 km from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lumbini. The airport has been funded by the Asian Development Bank and Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development. According to a press release by ADB Nepal, the opening of the airport was marked by a successful landing of an international commercial flight.