Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), only international airport of the country has been lacking pace in the enhancement and up-gradation project due to the negligence from the authority and the contractor company.
The enhancement project of TIA has not proceeded further after terminating the agreement with the Spanish contractor Sanjose Constructora two years ago. The reason behind cancelling the agreement with Spanish company was the contractor could not complete 17 per cent of work in the specified time.
Shanxi Construction of China had signed contract to extend the runway by 300 meters at its southern end or runway 02 in last October however, the company didn’t commence the work complaining about increment in prices of construction materials and now is not in contact.
Despite the classification of the work, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has not yet been able to call for Bids for the most complex and expensive project. The authority is preparing to invite bidders for re-tender of runway-02 and parallel taxiway extension project for TIA which is under the Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project (ATCEP) Identification number ‘ATCEP/ICB-02/2018’.
CAAN’s Director General Sanjeev Gautam claimed that the expansion of the International Terminal Building under project ‘NCB02’ will be completed within August, 2019. The work of NCB02 is being carried out by the Nepalese Company, Sharma Prera Ashish Joint Venture with an estimated cost of Rs 770 million.
Similarly, the work under NCB03 is expected to be completed within May, 2019. Waste management, utility, generator and power house are under NCB03 where the authority is investing $1.8 million.
