Overview
- Those charged include five former ministers and 10 former secretaries along with senior Civil Aviation Authority officials, including sitting director general Pradeep Adhikari.
- China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd, the project contractor, and its representatives in Nepal have also been named in the lawsuit.
- The CIAA filing follows a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee sub-committee report that flagged inflated costs and substandard work, estimating nearly NPR 10 billion in losses.
- The airport was completed on January 2, 2023 at an estimated cost of about $216 million and has struggled to attract scheduled international passenger flights.
- Adhikari was recently detained in a separate heliport investigation and is listed among the defendants in the Pokhara airport case.