[4] Supreme Court of Nepal halted the construction of project on 6 December 2019 due to an improper environmental impact assessment (EIA).

[7] The nearest border-customs to India by the road, lies approximately 53 km (33 mi) at Birgunj-Raxaul line, from where Nepal Oil Corporation imports the jet fuel.

[6] The area is also a part of an 800 km (500 mi) green belt that extends from Uttarakhand, India to Rautahat District, Nepal.

[9] The proposed airport lies at close quarters to the navigational fixes: PARSA, OMUPA, BIRGA and GAURA, that currently provide entry waypoints to Nepal via air.

Nijgadh would also be connected from the proposed air-route 'Himalaya-2', which begins from Sudurpashchim in the west of Nepal and exits from the east, continuing towards Kunming, China following the airspace of India and Myanmar.

To reduce the traffic a new International terminal is under construction along with extending the parallel taxiway until full flexed functional operations in Nijgadh is commenced.

[11] [10] However, the plan has also been centered around establishing a hub airport to accommodate the growing air traffic in the South and East Asian regions.

Based on the geographical location, topography, distance to the largest cities, road accessibility, forest density and an airspace; NEPICO/IRAD suggested Dumbarwana V.D.C.

[16] The next year, the cabinet of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal decided to construct the airport under 'Build Own Operate and Transfer' (BOOT) model.

In March 2010, Nepal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation signed a contract with a Korean company, Landmark Worldwide (LMW) to conduct a detailed feasibility study of the airport.

[17] In March 2015, Turkish Airlines Flight 726 skidded off a runway during a poor visibility approach to Kathmandu,[18] and the airport was shut down for four days.

On 6 December 2019, the Supreme Court of Nepal halted the construction of airport after a group of lawyers filed a public interest litigation (PIL) citing the improper preparation of EIA.

The Environmental Impact Assessment showed that more than 2 million trees; scattered around the area of 8,045 hectares (19,880 acres) is expected to be cut down, preventing 22,500 tons of carbon from being sequestered every year.

[3][24] Environmentalists predict that the destruction of such a large number of trees may lead to the severe flooding in Birgunj, Gadhimai, Gaur and Kalaiya area as a result of the forests not being able to absorb 650 million cubic meter of rainwater.

[25] The area also lies proximity to Parsa National Park, which protects endangered wildlife including Bengal Tiger and Asiatic Elephant.

[28] Sarnath Forest Development Project located in Murtiya of Sarlahi district; covers 2700 hectares of newly planted Eucalyptus.

[29] Rana along with ten other activist filed a public interest petition in September 2019 to stop the construction of airport at Nijgadh.