Pokhara — Nepal Oil Corporation has constructed a aviation fuel depot at the Pokhara Regional International Airport. For the first time in its 55-year history, the corporation has brought the depot into operation at a cost of Rs 750 million.

Three large storage houses with a capacity of 1,200 kiloliters each have been constructed at the depot. It has the capacity to store a total of 3,600 kiloliters of aviation fuel. Each vertical storage tank is 12 meters high and 12 meters in diameter. The corporation has leased a land area of ​​9,215 square meters with the Civil Aviation Authority and is operating this project. The storage tanks and iron pipes installed here are based on American Petroleum Institute (API) standards, which ensure international quality.

Project Chief, Pradip Kumar Yadav said that special arrangements have been made at the depot for the safety of flammable materials like aviation fuel. A separate water tank with a capacity of 1,200 kiloliters has been constructed for safety arrangements, which has been connected to the fire-fighting structure installed around the depot.

A 4,000-liter capacity ‘foam storage’ tank has been constructed to immediately extinguish fire incidents. Since it is connected to the fire-fighting structure, it has been made in such a way that foam also flows along with the water jet and helps in immediately extinguishing the fire. For fire-fighting purposes, two fire-fighting diesel pumps with a capacity of 230 horsepower, a jockey pump with a capacity of 15 horsepower and an 8-inch pipe have been connected.

With the help of the aviation fuel pipe in the storage house, a product pump has been installed to fill the refueling and to store the aviation fuel brought from the tanker in the storage house in the required quantity. 1 micron and 5 micron filters have been installed in loading and unloading, respectively. This helps maintain the quality of the fuel. Bids were invited for the construction of the depot on Chaitra 2, 2077 as per the Public Procurement Act. However, due to various reasons, a construction contract was signed with the construction contractor who submitted the bids only on Kartik 29, 2079 after a year and a half.

On Poush 15, 2079, an agreement was reached with the Civil Aviation Authority to lease the land. After that, the foundation stone of the construction work was laid on Shrawan 1, 2080 in the presence of the then Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Ramesh Rijal. The Corporation has stated that the cost of the project was managed from internal resources. This depot has been constructed to provide aviation fuel required by national and international aircraft flying and landing from Pokhara.