The government has acquired large tracts of farmland to build a proposed regional international airport at Chinnedanda, 3 km east of the existing airport.

Scuffles broke out when police stopped more than 150 agitating landowners attempting to lock out the project office of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan).

Two of the landowners Bishnu Bahadur Khatri and Mina Kumari Gurung sustained serious injuries and have been admitted to Manipal Teaching Hospital, police said. Two police officers have also been injured.

In 1975, the government had acquired more than 3,106 ropanis of land to build the airport. It has earmarked Rs 1 billion in this fiscal year’s budget for additional land acquisition after a fresh study said that another 636 ropanis would be required for the project.

Dissatisfied with the nominal land compensation, locals had started a phase-wise agitation against the government.

“The agitation will continue unless the government provides fair compensation,” said Bodh Raj Karki, spokesperson of the struggle committee formed to pressurise the government. “The second phase of protests will be more intense.”

According to him, there are more than 1,500 landowners of the additional land that the government has acquired.  

Police Superintendent Basanta Kumar Lama said they were forced to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. “As the demonstration was turning violent and the crowd started throwing stones, the police used three sets of tear gas to control the situation.”

The Finance Ministry has asked China Exim Bank for a soft loan of $215.96 million to build the airport in Pokhara. The credit request follows the Cabinet’s go-ahead on October 27 to construct the much-delayed project with Chinese funding.

On May 22, Caan had awarded the construction contract to China CAMC Engineering Co. The project, however, encountered land acquisition problems soon after the construction contract was awarded.

Caan had invited bids for the project on February 9, 2012. As per the feasibility report, the planned airport will accommodate medium category jets like the Boeing 757 and Airbus 320.