The expansion and enhancement of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) termed as Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project (ATCEP) has been resumed after a long halt. The government terminated the contract with San Jose Company of Spain back in December 2016 after the company did not commence the work within the time.
This time Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has divide the work in 3 parts as issuing the work designated to only 1 company did not work out as expected. San Jose had completed only 18 % of work so CAAN terminated the contract and provided new contract to other company.
Out of the three packages, NCB-01 deals with the expansion of runway of which the contract has been given to ‘China Shanxi Construction and engineering’ company at an estimated cost of 56 crore and 18 lakh rupees. The company has started the work towards physical part after half months of the contracted date.
Similarly, NCB-02 which is related to expansion of Terminal Building contract has been given to Nepali Company ‘Sharma Prera Ashishal’ at the cost of 87.8 crore rupee. As per CAAN’s spokesperson Birendra Prasad Shrestha, both companies have started working and are given 18 months of time period to complete the work.
Likewise, NCB-03 is about the Generator installation along with light installation contract that has been given to Nepali company ‘Ashish and Prera Joint Venture’ at 21 crore and 72 lakh rupees.
The project is supported by the Asian Development Bank with 80 lakh dollar among which 70 lakh is loan and rest being grants.
The project was started as TIA is only International Airport of the country and it is facing the problem of increased flight due to which planes have to hold in the air for long period of time and in tourist peak season even more.
