Nijgadh International Airport (proposed)निजगढ अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थल (प्रस्तावित)

Nijgadh is the airport Nepal keeps talking about. The Civil Aviation Authority's airport profile lists 56 airports, of which 4 are under construction — Nijgadh International among them. The case for it has always rested on Tribhuvan: a single runway in a hemmed-in valley, terrain-constrained approaches and chronic congestion have made Kathmandu's airport a byword for saturation, and that saturation is the standing argument for a big greenfield airport in the plains.

The project is physically coupled to Nepal's biggest road undertaking. The 70.977 km Kathmandu–Tarai Fast Track expressway, under construction by the Nepal Army since 2017, plunges from the Valley rim to Nijgadh in Bara — its logic explicitly tied to the airport plan at its southern end, which the Kathmandu Post's reporting describes plainly as stalled. The expressway itself is years behind: its official completion target has slipped to mid-April 2027, with physical progress at 48% as of May 2026 and officials conceding 2–3 more years beyond that.

The honest status, then: no terminal, no runway, no opening date — a designated site and a long-running national debate. Whatever is eventually decided will be shaped by the sobering experience of Bhairahawa and Pokhara, Nepal's two newest international airports, both of which opened to near-empty schedules.