The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has asked shortlisted firms to submit requests for proposal to carry out an environmental and social impact assessment of the planned second international airport (SIA) in Nijgadh, Bara.

The modern airport in Nijgadh, which is located 175 kilometres south of Kathmandu, will be the biggest airport in South Asia in terms of area at 80 square kilometres. The four shortlisted firms are CEOCE Consultants; ADMC Engineering and Desired Engineering Consultancy; Nepal Environmental and Scientific Services, BDA Nepal and Environment and Resource Management Consultant; and Silt Consultant, Tech Studio of Engineering with Association of Raft Consultancy.

They have been given a deadline of September 5 to submit their applications, as per Caan’s notice issued on August 6.

SIA project officials said that they had targeted finishing the environmental and social impact assessment report, a detailed project report, distribution of land compensation payments and an environmental impact assessment this fiscal year or by mid-July next year.

Caan has estimated that the airport project will cost

Rs121 billion. The government has allocated Rs2.5 billion for the project this fiscal year. Project officials said that they had aimed to spend at least 80 percent of the budget allocated for the project this fiscal year.

According to them, Rs1 billion will be spent on distributing land compensation payments and another Rs1.5 billion on resettling people living on the project site. Around 1,600 households will have to be relocated. Caan said the airport would be able to

handle 20 million passengers annually in the first phase.

Its preliminary internal financial assessment has proposed constructing a 4,000-metre runway and a 100,000-square-metre international passenger terminal building.

The proposed site of the SIA is close to Nepal’s border with India, and government officials said that it would be easily accessible to a large section of the population in India’s Bihar state. This is why the southern neighbour has been expressing interest in building it, they added.

Earlier, the KP Sharma Oli administration had decided to build the airport by mobilizing domestic resources.