Udayapur, Oct. 30 -- Four years after 105 hectares of forest were cleared for the proposed Sagarmatha Airport in Udayapur, the project site remains an open grassland, serving as a grazing ground for cattle instead of an airstrip.

Despite government approval to build a regional airport in Triyuga Municipality, the project has made no tangible progress since the forest clearance, raising questions about haphazard planning and misuse of public resources.

In September 2021, during the tenure of then prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, the Cabinet authorised the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to clear 156.11 hectares of forestland spread across the Shivalaya Religious Forest, Kanga Community Forest, and Motihayi Community Forest to...