Gautam Buddha International Airport Nepal

Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday inaugurated the country’s second international airport built by China that will help connect Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha and a major tourist and pilgrimage destination, to Buddhist circuits in South Asia as well as to the rest of the world, PTI reported.

The USD 76 million Gautam Buddha International Airport was inaugurated on the day Narendra Modi visited Lumbini on the occasion of Buddha Purnima and also held comprehensive talks with his Nepalese counterpart Deuba to expand bilateral cooperation in multiple areas, including in hydropower, development and connectivity between the two neighbouring countries.

Modi and his entourage arrived in Lumbini on a special Indian Air Force helicopter from Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh. The IAF helicopter landed at the helipad constructed near the International Buddhist Prayer Centre and Auditorium in Lumbini, the report said.