Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project (ATCEP) is about to initiate soon as Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is working desperately to designate the competent construction companies. Previously, the letter of intent (LOI) had been dispatched to the selected bidding companies with the time period of seven days in which no any controversies evolved.
CAAN received bids from different construction companies for Tribhuvan International ATCEP. Under the notice NCB (National Competitive Bidding)-01, CAAN received bid from four companies from which one company will be selected who will particularly work for TIA runway extension project. The four companies are China Railway, Kalika Tundi Joint Venture, Shanxi Construction Engineering and Stratag International. The spokesperson for CAAN Mr. Birendra Prasad Shrestha said, “It could take a maximum of 20 days for the selection of companies for tender NCB-01.”
Likewise under the notice NCB-02, CAAN received joint bid from three companies namely Contech Lumbini Joint Venture, Sharma Prera and Ashish Joint Venture who will work for the terminal enhancement project. Shrestha informed that selection of company for tender NCB-02 will require 10 to 12 days.
Whereas, the notice NCB-03 had received some bids from various companies whose financial evaluation is currently going. It could take a week for the completion of evaluation. Companies selected for tender NCB-03 will be working for TIA Utility Enhancement Project.
CAAN is also planning to initiate earthwork at Guheswori area for which a French consulting company ADPI is preparing master plan of TIA. ADPI (Aéroports de Paris Group Ingénierie) is a French company specialized in airport architecture and engineering and is a fully owned subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris Group.
The country’s sole international airport is desperately in need of enhancement of its capacity due to the fact that the air traffic and congestion at Kathmandu airspace is rocketing these days. Private airline companies are expanding their fleet capacity hence, narrowing the parking space. Some other international airports on different parts of the country are under construction however, it will take more than five years to complete. To handle the pressure, ATCEP is mandatory for TIA.
Under the ATCEP, TIA will be seeing some improvements with the Enhancement Project such as reconfiguration and upgrading of airfield infrastructures, construction of parallel and link taxiways, new international apron, 300 meters of runway extension, construction of runway end safety area and an uninterrupted power supply system for essential airfield and security area lights. Moreover, the international terminal building will also be expanded and reconfigured with improvement in utility facilities.
