Air service has not been resumed at the Biratnagar Airport after it got inundated due to incessant rains in the past couple of days.
According to the Civil Aviation Office of the airport, it will take a few more days for the air service to resume from here as most of the key areas remain submerged in floodwater. Chief of Biratnagar Airport, Utsav Raj Kharel, informed that air service would be possible from next Saturday as the terminal building, the parking area and its surroundings were still submerged despite decreasing water level in the runway and taxiway.
He said that there was a problem as the water accumulated at the airport couldn’t be drained even though the rains stopped yesterday. Though it has not been decided yet when the regular flight services will resume, the weather is getting clearer and if the water dries up soon, services are likely to resume from Saturday.
All take offs and landings from the airport have been suspended since last Tuesday after the airport got completely submerged in the floodwater.
One aircraft each of Buddha Air and Shree Air are shifted to safer area as they couldn’t return to Kathmandu. The details of the damage caused by the floods have not been confirmed yet since various areas of the airport still remain flooded.
Buddha Air operates nine daily flights to Kathmandu, Yeti Airlines five, Saurya Air and Shree Airlines four each and Guna Air one flight from the airport.
Hundreds of passengers have been affected due to the cancellation of about 25 daily flights. Prakash Poudel, Station Manager of Saurya Air, informed that the airlines were adding additional flights from Bhadrapur as an alternative to Biratnagar following the disruption of service here.
The flight services were disrupted after the local Kesaliya River flooded due to heavy rains, flooding the runway and the parking area.
Source : TRN,
