International flight operations from the Kushinagar airport will commence in the next months, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Sunday, according to a state government statement. The Union Cabinet had on June 24 approved the Kushinagar airport’s status as an international facility, stating it will offer improved connectivity to the important Buddhist pilgrimage site.

Adityanath Sunday met Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri at Kushinagar and discussed the progress in the project. Within the next two months, International flights will commence operations from this airport, Yogi was quoted as saying in the government statement. Once this airport begins operating international flights, it will become the fourth international facility in the state. At present, two international airports — Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport at Lucknow and Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport at Varanasi — are operational in the state, the UP government said.

An international airport is under construction at Gautam Buddh Nagar. ”Kushinagar is the Central point of Buddhist circuit. A large number of followers of Buddhism come here, as this is the place where Lord Buddha attained Mahanirvana. He had given his first sermon at Sarnath, Adityanath said.

People from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Japan, Singapore and other countries wanted air connectivity with Kushinagar, he said. Puri said, ”Permission for flight service has been given on 18 new routes. Apart from this, other airports will be constructed/developed.”