Baglung's Balewa airport sits high and dry surrounded by terraced fields as the roads leading to it have been cut off by landslides.

Travellers cannot get to the airport and no flights operate out of here, leaving Baglung, a historical trade centre in western Nepal, without air links.

Two roads lead to the airport which lies 10 km from Maldhunga. Both of them collapsed after being hit by landslides for three years in a row. The routes are completely closed during the three months of the monsoon. As a result, travellers are forced to walk.

"The Road Division doesn't do anything during the rainy season. Even though the municipality has spent large amounts of money and opened the roads to motor traffic, it has not been possible to keep them open," said Basant Kumar Shrestha, mayor of Baglung Municipality.

"The airport is the pride of the region, and it does not feel good not being able to operate it," he said. "Unless there is road access, travellers cannot reach the airport to fly out."

Deputy Mayor Raju Khadka said that travellers would not risk travelling over the bad roads to board flights.

"Everyone wants to go by taxi to the airport, but because of the landslide, it is difficult for even four-wheel drive vehicles like the Bolero," he said. "The runway has been completed, but there is no possibility of transferring passengers to and from the airport."

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Baglung Municipality and political leaders, who were pushing the contractor to complete the construction quickly, are not showing any interest in operating the airport now that it is ready, say insiders.

The airport's runway, which is 700 metres long and 24 metres wide, has been blacktopped. But it is not known whether any aircraft will land on it.

The airport grounds have been surrounded by a wire fence, and the terminal building has been repaired and painted.

Meenraj Ojha, programme manager of the Civil Aviation Authority, had said that flights would operate out of the airport in mid-May.

"Political leaders are not showing any interest, and there is no possibility of conducting services for lack of access roads," said Chakra Bahadur Khatri, chairman of Baglung Municipality-14.

The government has awarded a contract to blacktop a 10-km stretch of the Kaligandaki Corridor from Maldhunga to Balewa. But Shrestha said that it would be difficult to operate the airport until it is certain when the road will be paved.

The blacktopped road from Maldhunga to Galuwa towards Panitanki is also not in regular operation due to landslides.

"Even though the Kaligandaki Corridor lies inside the municipality limits, the work of constructing and paving the road is not within its jurisdiction," Khadka said. "The municipality has spent hundreds of thousands to remove landslide debris and open the road track," he said.

Kasthamandap Uma and Joint Venture Construction Company blacktopped the runway last year at a cost of Rs80.24 million.

Regular flights used to operate from the airport to Kathmandu, Pokhara and Bhairahawa until 1993. Khatri said services were discontinued after the opening of the Pokhara-Baglung road.

In 2015, the then tourism minister Lokendra Bista and education minister Dinanath Sharma had also pledged to resume services.

Baglung Municipality operated flights in 2018 even though the planes flew with rows of empty seats, causing heavy losses to the city.

Airlines were incurring losses by operating two weekly flights, and discussions were held to blacktop the runway because the poor condition of the runway posed a safety hazard.

A 620-metre concrete drain, 1,500-metre fence, main gate and an emergency gate have also been constructed at the airport. The runway can handle aircraft with a capacity of 18 to 24 seats.

Although the construction work has finished, stakeholders have not taken any initiative to operate flights, say locals.