The second package of the ongoing Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) Project which includes installation of communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) that is vital for Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems is set to be initiated as bid for doing so is expected to be launched by this month.
The chief of the airport project Mr. Om Sharma said that they have already forwarded necessary documents to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) for the invitation of the second package. CAAN will be assessing the documents for the bid preparations.
The invitations for the tender is expected to be done by June which will take four months.
Sharma informed that the major infrastructural work related to international terminal building, administration building, control tower, runway and apron is under way and 42 per cent of physical progress has been achieved till now.
The sub base layer for 3km long runway has been completed and the base course layer project has been initiated which will take 2 months for the completion. After that the blacktopping work will be commenced, added Sharma.
At present, 200 average workers have been deployed at the project out of which 70 are Chinese workers.
The total estimated cost for the first package of GBIA project is Rs6.22 arba whereas it is expected to be Rs 1 arba for the second package.
The airport is flourished at 787 bighas of land that is equal to 10,500 ropanis that will be the better alternative for Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The project was awarded to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013 for Rs. 6.22 arba and was expected to be completed by end of 2017 but due to shortages of fuel and building materials and due to the months-long Terai closure in 2015 delayed the works by six months along with dispute between the Chinese contractor and the Nepali sub-contractor, Northwest Infra Nepal, and its operation deadline was revised to June 2018 and now to 2019.
