CAAN’s decision to terminate the contract to be finalized by ADB
December 9, 2016- Kathmandu
The $92-million Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project which has been held up indeterminately in spite of two deadline delays as the contractor, Sanjose Constructora couldn’t take the work forward rigorously and only 17 percent progress have been achieved so far now has its fate in the hands of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) . The tourism ministry and CAAN has already decided to terminate the contract with Sanjose still, the real decision will come after the consent of ADB which has informed that it’s conducting consultations regarding what to conclude about it.
It has been known that the ADB’s Nepal Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama informed about the lack of decision and they are in the close hearing with the headquarters in Manilla. Serious negotiations with the contractor if it wants to linger with the project, or accelerate process to employ another contractor by sacking the current agreement would be the options to ADB.
Yokoyama said that the ADB was extremely concerned about the development of the TIA project. “Instant action is obligatory to address the existing bottleneck.”
The ADB has provided $80 million in loan and grant and the government has laid up $12 million for the outline which has since been retitled as air transport capacity enhancement project. Effort started in December 2010 and was slated to be completed in 2015. The deadline was protracted to March 2016 after the project mired due to the earthquake and fuel shortage last year. The time limit was again pushed backed to 2018.
Tourism Minister Jeeban Bahadur Shahi expressed his lack of convenience about the completion of the project even by 2020 last Tuesday.
The construction company had been constantly complaining about the lack of building materials and its supplies while not finding any other sources too. Previous delays due to April Earthquake and Indian blockade also hurdled the project.
After the accomplishment of the project, TIA will be able to handle more than 5.85 million passengers yearly and lodge bigger aircraft.
