Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Khadka Raj Paudel has directed the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) to move forward with studies on the development and expansion of Tarigaun Airport in Dang and Rara Airport in Mugu. He issued the instruction during a Thursday meeting with CAAN officials at the ministry, after recently visiting and observing both airports. The studies are the next step in considering development and expansion at the two facilities; the instruction itself does not announce that construction or expansion work has been approved.
Studies to Advance After Airport Visits
Paudel’s direction followed inspection and observation visits to Tarigaun and Rara airports. The minister’s visits provided the immediate context for the discussion with CAAN officials, where he asked the authority to advance the study process. Reports by Nepal Press and Ratopati also described the instruction as a move toward examining expansion at both airports.
The direction concerns two airports in separate districts: Tarigaun in Dang and Rara in Mugu. Rather than announcing a final expansion plan, Paudel has asked CAAN to proceed with studies on their development and expansion. That distinction places the current step at the assessment stage. The study process is intended to come before any further decisions on how development might proceed, although the available information does not set out the studies’ scope or findings.
The meeting at the ministry brought the minister’s post-visit direction to the authority responsible for taking the study process forward. The instruction therefore shifts the matter from inspection and observation toward formal examination by CAAN. No specific timetable for completing the studies, technical details, budget, or construction schedule was included in the reported announcement.
Expansion Remains a Subject for Assessment
The direction identifies development and expansion as the issues for CAAN to study at both locations. It does not, by itself, confirm the size or form of any future work. Those details would depend on the study process and any decisions taken afterward. The announcement also does not specify whether the two airports will be assessed under a single plan or through separate studies.
For now, the confirmed action is that the minister has asked CAAN to move the studies forward. The available reports do not provide technical conclusions from the minister’s visits or describe proposed changes to either airport. Nor do they identify a target date for the authority to present its findings. Those details remain outside the announcement, leaving the studies as the next stated step rather than a completed expansion decision.
The instruction links Paudel’s recent visits with a request for follow-up by CAAN. His inspections and observations preceded the meeting, and the authority has now been directed to advance the examination of development and expansion options for Tarigaun and Rara. A report by Nagarik News likewise covered the direction to proceed with studies for both airports.
Next Step for Tarigaun and Rara
The immediate focus is therefore on CAAN’s study process. The minister’s instruction establishes that the authority should move ahead with examining the two airports, but the information released so far does not detail what recommendations the studies may produce. Any subsequent plan for development or expansion would follow that assessment rather than being confirmed by Thursday’s meeting alone.
With the studies directed for both Tarigaun Airport in Dang and Rara Airport in Mugu, the next reported stage is for CAAN to take the process forward. Further decisions on the airports’ development and expansion remain to be determined after the studies. The announcement records a clear instruction from Paudel, while leaving the results, timing, and specific work at each airport to be established through the process ahead.
