Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Thai firm ‘Aeronautical Radio of Thailand’ signed the agreement on supply, delivery, installation and Commissioning of CNS (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance) and Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems for the under construction Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA).
Director General of CAAN, Sanjiv Gautam and Nuttawat Supanundha of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand signed on the contract on Thursday. The contract of around USD 4.8 million was signed.
Around a month back, CAAN had elected the Thai firm ‘Aeronautical Radio of Thailand’ out of 7 companies that had bid for second phase project of GBIA which comprises of installation of various equipment.
Out of 7 companies, 3 companies from Spain, MSI-aeronav and Thai firm quoted the least amount of price for development which was published on September among them Thai firm had bid the lowest amount which is 4,770,300 USD excluding Custom and VAT which was evaluated as per Clause No.27 (1&2) of PPA 2063.
The project duration will be of 9 months from the day of contract awarded and the Thai Firm will now have to complete the project within December this year. The testing of the equipment will be done afterward which is expected to take around 2 months.
The manufacturing of the equipment is expected to take 3 months while transporting them to Nepal and installation of them is expected to take 2/2 months. The project will be divided into 4 phases that will include installation, testing, authorizing and flight calibration of navigation and communication systems.
The airport is set to have CAT I standard Instrument Landing System (ILS). 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 delay in construction work along with other obstacles.
The construction was due to be completed 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 and with the ongoing process, DG Gautam stated that the commercial operation of the airport will begin from year end.
The runway of the airport will be 3,000 meters long which is expected to come into operation by this month for domestic operation.
