Politicians and businessmen quickly began to promote the airport idea to the villagers of Dhada Ghopa. When some villagers were initially hesitant to give up their land, the former mayor threatened turning land into graveyards if the villagers wouldn’t give in to his request, reported Thaha Research.  Influential politicians also tried to convince the villagers who were hesitant to give up land, which was family heirloom for a lot of villagers. Eventually, the villagers agreed to give their land for airport’s construction, believing it would benefit them. However, the villagers had posited their own conditions:

• The family members of people who gave their land for airport’s construction would be employed at the airport.
• If the airport isn’t constructed, the land would be given abc to the people who initially owned them. 

As reported in a national Daily of Nepal, The Kathmandu Post:

“ Yeti Airlines purchased the land in 2004. The airline company, now Yeti Group, had bought 7 bigha and 18 kattha [5.34 hectares] of land then. Some locals even donated their land hoping that the airport would be built. At that time land prices ranged from Rs 28,000 per kattha to Rs40,000 per kattha [1 kattha in Nepal is 3645 sq ft]. Additionally, the Dharan municipality had also given an extra 7 bigha [4.74 hectares] of land for the airport project.” 

The acquired land was registered under Yeti Incorporation, which purchased a total of 6 bighas and 18 katthas, while another investor, Kundan Shamsher Jabara, purchased 7 katthas, claiming it was for the airport.

The ministry’s rejection of Yeti’s proposal to build an airport

Around a month after the acquisition of the airport, Dharan Sub-Metropolitan wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism (CAAN), stating that the construction of an airport would benefit the tourism sector in the Dharan, Dhankuta, and Bhojpur areas. They indicated that if permission were granted to Yeti Incorporation, the airport could be completed within six months. 

Following this, CAAN publicly issued a notice for any business houses that wanted to build a  STOL airport in Dharan. Yeti did express its desire to build an airport but no other company was interested in doing so as everyone was aware that the land was already controlled by Yeti. Consequently, the ministry believed that legal complications would ensue if they allowed Yeti to construct an airport. So Yeti’s plea to construct the airport was dismissed. 

A few months later, CAAN issued the public notice again for the construction of Dharan Airport – to which only Yeti Airlines showed any interest. The Ministry of Culture rejected Yeti’s proposal, citing Yeti’s lack of expertise in airport construction. Following this, Yeti and Dharan Sub-Metropolitan wrote another letter to appease the ministry to allow Yeti to construct the airport.

Nepal’s political problems brushed Dharan Airport’s construction aside

During this time, a civil war was ongoing in the country, making Dharan airport a fringe concern for a nation that was looking to overthrow its “king-ship”. In 2011, after some advocacy from local ministers, the minister of Civil Aviation, Lokendra Bista Magar and his team visited Dharan. After a meeting with Manoj Menyangbo and Yeti representative Ashok Agarwal, the minister announced that they would proceed with the airport project in collaboration with CAAN.

The CAAN team began field studies using drones and determined that constructing a 900-meter STOL runway. For this, the airport would require 13 bighas, 7 kathas, and 2 dhurs of land. A year later, following a meeting of ministers, approval was granted for CAAN to construct the airport on the specified land. The Sub-Metropolitan agreed to provide half of the required land, but at that time, no decision had been reached with regard to the fate of the land that was acquired by Yeti.

CAAN wrote a letter to Dharan Sub-Metropolitan to enquire about how the remaining land for the airport’s construction would come about. Dharan Sub-Metropolitan sent a return letter to CAAN specifying that CAAN had to get the additional land from Yeti. Ang Chiring Sherpa and Ashok Agarwal tried to sell their land to CAAN but they were unable to do so.

Let’s take a look at a few events in Dharan Airport’s timeline that followed, as political instability meant that different people 

 

Minister	Proposal
Bhim Prasad Acharya	set a budget of Rs. 6 crore for the airport following a visit to the proposed area for airport’s construction
Kripa Sur Sherpa	set a budget of Rs. 10 crore for the airport
Jiwan Shahi	Told locals that he had set aside Rs. 2 crore for the airport

 

Further research of the airport determined that if the work was properly done, the Dharan airport could be much more than a STOLport – an ATR could land there. A 1,250 meter runway would necessitate 93.25 bighas of land but everyone knew that when there were tensions flaring about acquiring less than one-tenth of this area, getting an extensive airport would be next to impossible. 

The Death of Ang Chhiring Sherpa and the prospects of the airport still is low

In 2019, Ang Chhiring Sherpa died in a helicopter crash in 2075. The investigation report revealed that the most probable cause of the accident was that: 

“ after take-off from the Pathibhara helipad in unfavorable weather encountered strong gusting wind along with snowfall which led him to inadvertently enter into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC conditions) lost his situational awareness and positive control of helicopter which ultimately led to the Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accident.”

Kundan Shumsher Jabara, the other person who had acquired land from locals in Dharan has also passed away. The current mayor, Harka Sampang, who is extremely popular with locals has raised the issue of the airport’s construction. However, there’s a bit of legality that needs to be taken into consideration.

According to aviation regulations in Nepal, two airports in Terai (essentially, the flat areas of the country) region cannot be built within 74 km of another. Since Biratnagar Airport, which is a major airport of Nepal, is only 39 km away. It is also said that there are other challenges:

• The proximity of mountains poses challenges, as there is only one viable route for takeoff and landing.
• In Dhada Ghopa, construction of houses has begun, with some residents unaware that an airport was planned for the area. 

What the future hold for Yeti and Dharan Airport

Twenty years ago, Yeti purchased land for the airport’s construction at Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 32,000 per kattha. The current market price is now 50 lakh per kattha, making Yeti’s total land worth almost as high as a billion Nepali rupees. 

Almost a decade ago, Yeti Airlines Vice President Bijay Shrestha and his team stated that if airport construction did not begin within a year, the land would be returned to the people. However, Shrestha has since claimed that they did not buy the land at a cheap price, asserting that the purchase was made at the prevailing market rate at the time and was conducted legally. He dismissed the residents’ concerns (who want their land back) as unnecessary drama, suggesting that if they feel wronged, they should seek legal recourse.

One of the sellers filed a case with the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), requesting the return of their land, which was sold under pressure. However, no one took this complaint seriously.

Following the death of Kundan Shamsher Jabara, the land was transferred to Bijay Shrestha, and trading on this land began. However, Dharan Sub-Metropolitan has halted any transactions involving land owned by Yeti Incorporation. Many large companies, such as Batash Group and Barha Finance, are interested in purchasing the land, with some offering an additional 12 lakhs per kattha. 

Nevertheless, the original sellers are firm in their stance: they either want the airport to be built or their land returned at the original selling price. The residents of Dhada Ghopa did not sell their land out of necessity; they believed the airport would contribute to the development of Dharan. How this situation will pan out in this nation that has so many abandoned airports, no one knows.