The construction work of Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA), a national pride project has attained above 55 per cent of physical progress.
Runway blacktopping project of Gautam Buddha International Airport began on October 30, 2018. The Chinese Construction Company Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction has changed the management and carried out work in full swing. Nepalese workers are constructing the international terminal buildings, runway, administrative buildings, and firefighting buildings. The Chinese technical team has been operating roller, other equipment & machines. As many as 15 Chinese and 200 Nepalese workers have been used for the construction of the airport.
Prabesh Adhikari, chief officer of the project stated that the blacktopping work will take at least 4-6 months for completion whereas the entire structure of arrival building is completed and the major structure of departure building is finished. He said 55 percent work was completed from the view of the construction of the structure.
The construction work of various parties related to the technical interrelation should be completed to conduct international flights even if it is not completed the schedule flight will be commenced from June 28, 2019.
According to project officials, 750 metric tons of asphalt have been imported from outside Nepal for blacktopping work and the team of workers and technicians from China have commenced the work.
The runway of the airport will be 3,000 meters long. The Construction work of terminal buildings, water tanks, and control towers, among other infrastructures, are also underway of construction.
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.
