Gautam Buddha airport located in Bhairahawa is currently being upgraded to be the second international airport in the country and to support the congested TIA airspace. But the pace of construction at the airport was earlier hit by back to back delays.
Chinese Construction company Northwest; successor of the airport project were awarded the contract to complete the project by end of 2017 however, circumstances like the earthquake and economic blockade pushed the deadline to 2018 but the continuous halted work can make it possible only by 2019.
The dispute amongst the Chinese contractor and its sub agent over the payments and illegal appointment of subcontractor had caused stress and delay slowing the progress of the airport. The issue had also caused the airport to hardly succeed to meet even three percent of construction progress target in past five months.
The construction work which needed thousands of workers was being executed by minimum labor workers. Basically, the Chinese Company appointed sub contractor had fled adding trouble to both Construction Company and its supplier. Heavy numbers of bills have been pending for payment at contractors’ office and none of the suppliers are willing to work for the company.
Earlier the Chinese contractor had committed to complete 40 percent of building works until June this year but was only capable of managing to achieve 25 percent by the date. The construction company was left out with stress and a long letter of grievance.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal analyzing the issue was compelled to appoint foreign research experts to study the case scenario. This step of expert recruitment made by CAAN had been linked with contract termination for Northwest Construction Company.
But the Chinese Contractors analyzing leggings has wisely approached Civil Aviation Authority for pardoning them and has also committed to working on the construction with new procedure and management team.
The company has thus planned to change its entire work force and add up additional expert staffs from China and finish the task. A set of the team is much likely to arrive Nepal from China for the construction company to cope up with delayed work and finish the project by deadline. Northwest has also decided to replace Nepalese work force with Chinese workers for a proper outcome.
The progress work was stalled due to the dispute over payments between the Chinese contractor Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group and the Nepali sub-contractor Northwest Infra Nepal at the Gautam Buddha Airport project construction site since March.
The Gautam Buddha International Airport is expected to be completed with the estimated budget of Rs6.22 billion and will be the gateway to Lumbini reachable from throughout the globe directly after the completion.
