Open Saidpur airport for international relief flights to Nepal

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the authorities concerned to open the Saidpur airport in the northern district of Nilphamari to foreign flights carrying relief goods for the earthquake-struck people of neighbouring Nepal.

“If any country wishes to use the airport facility to send relief supplies to Nepal, it should be kept available,” she told her cabinet colleagues while discussing Saturday's massive earthquake, after the cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.

After landing of the aircraft, the goods would be transported by road to Nepal through India, a minister quoted the premier as saying.
Relief materials have started pouring in to Kathmandu from across the world, with more countries poised to send assistance. Four thousand people were killed in the earthquake.

The quake, which struck on Saturday, is known to have injured at least 7,000 people, reports the BBC. Nepal says it needs everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers, it adds.