Gautam Buddha Int’l Airport troubled with delayed construction work
Mar 1, 2017 Bhairahawa
Despite unfavorable circumstances, 24 percent construction of Gautam Buddha Int’l Airport is completed however; the contractor company is seen to be responsible for all the delays. According to the airport planning chief Om Sharma, the haphazard economic management from the Chinese Contractors from Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Group has delayed constructional works. The construction needs to be completed within the end of June, 2018.
Sharma said that the planning committee is interacting with the contractor company regularly to handle the problems related to economic management. “The construction work is not halted but is lacking pace,” said Sharma, “We are warning the contractor company to immediately solve the economic problems and complete the work in time.” 24 percent of work was completed till the end of February.
The contractor company was responsible to complete 30 percent work by March, 33 percent by April, 38 percent by May and 44 percent by June this year. The meeting held at Kathmandu on Sunday between the chief planning organizations: Asian Development Bank, Ministry of Finance and Civil Aviation Authority concluded that the assigned work must be completed on time else the authorities would take strict actions against the company. The issue related with company’s delay in payment to workers, fuel, constructional materials was also discussed in the meeting. The chief of the contractor company was called to solve the problem of economic crisis and continue the work with full pace. “The vice president of the company will be arriving on 5th of March as his visa processing is going on,” said Sharma.
The company has a contract agreement of 6.22 billion out of which the company has already received 1.5 billion of the payment. The company has demanded the payment of additional 152 million making their bill number to seven. The planning committee and the Ministry have already agreed the payment proposal. The final decision is to be made by Asian Development Bank and then after the approval, the current ongoing economic problems faced by the company will be faded away resulting in the pace of the constructional works.
Among the 24 percent of Airport construction, the works related to Ghaghara River diversion, International Terminal Building along with underground construction works are in the final phase of completion. Administrator and Control Tower, Rescue and Fire Control Building, Electricity substation building is under construction. Moreover, the 3 KM graveled runway is already ready.
Sharma believes the work will complete in time as the contractor has already completed complex tasks and further tasks are considerably easier. According to him, the initial work from current contractor has higher investment and further work has lower investment due to which the economic problem was created. Sharma said, “This situation should be managed by the contractor themselves.”
The construction of Gautam Buddha Int’l Airport will be completed in time if effective resources and manpower are supplied. Currently, the construction is running daily with 100 workers, 3 dozens tippers, 4 rollers and graders each. But the committee is urging this infrastructure to be doubled. The construction work was estimated to complete in 2017 however; unavoidable factors like earthquake, economic blockade has extended the target date to the mid of June, 2018. If Contractor Company is unable to complete the work in the given time frame then the company will be penalized 3.2 million daily to the airport planning committee as compensation.
