7 companies have bid for second phase project of Bhairahawa Airport which comprises of installation of various equipment’s. The companies responded to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal’s (CAAN) tender notice for the 800 million worth project.
The companies have already submitted proposal for the project which includes installation of CNS (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance) and Air Traffic Management systems.
Companies from China, Spain and Canada have bided for tender which was published on September. As per airport project official, the bidder’s financial proposal will be published after their technical evaluation and the project will be awarded to lowest bidder. The project duration will be of 9 months from the day of contract awarded.
The evaluation of bidders is expected to take some more weeks and after awarding the contract the companies will be given some time for preparation.
The project will be divided into 4 phases that will include installation, testing, authorizing and flight calibration of navigation and communication systems.
The airport runway of the airport will be 3,000 meters long which is expected to come into operation by March of 2019. The construction work of terminal buildings, water tanks, and control towers, among other infrastructures, are also underway of construction. 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.
Nepal Oil Corporation is also set to establish aviation fuel depot at the airport which will have capacity to reserve fuel of around two thousand kiloliter.
The project was hindered by dispute over payment between Chinese contractor and Nepali sub-contractor that made delayed in construction work along with other obstacles.
The construction was due to complete by the end of 2017 however it couldn’t complete due to Madhes movement, blockade, earthquake etc. and the construction company had requested to extend the deadline till 2019.
The government has been prioritizing on the airport and has been working on its completion in order to aid in “Tourism year-2020” to bring around 2 million tourist in the country.
