Construction of runway of Gautam Budhha International Regional Airport (GBIA) has been completed. The construction of 3000 meter long runway has finally been completed.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) official stated about the completion of one of the main aspect of the construction project. Other remaining work of the project will also be proceeded added the official.
With the completion of construction of the runway, it now can be used for emergency landing stated the official. The runway will also be alternative to the only international airport of the country Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) as the runway can hold aircraft that has been currently operation at TIA.
Old runway will be used as taxiway and the government has stated to operate the airport for international flight within this year.
Works of Terminal building, control tower, water reservoir and other infrastructure has been going on accordingly.
The works of taxiway and parking bays are also in final level out of 4 and the work is set to be initiated as the work of runway has completed.
Now the work of installing airfield light, connecting runway with Apron and taxiway etc. work will be carried out. After the operation of the runway, 400 meter of taxiway; 200 in east and 200 on west side will be extended. The project has also planned to use old runway as the parallel taxiway in future.
The work was temporarily halted last week after the construction company didn’t receive their payment and Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City did not supply gravel and sand at the old rate and prevented the project from extracting riverbed materials.
However, the issue was solved immediately after Ministry of Finance allocated NRs 700 Million to the contractor company.
The project was awarded to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013 for NRs. 6.22 Billion and was expected to be completed by end of 2017.
However, it couldn’t complete due to dispute over payment between Chinese contractor and Nepali sub-contractor, Madhes movement, blockade, earthquake etc. and the construction company had requested to extend the deadline till 2019.
The airport will be the country’s second international airport and is expected to minimize the traffic congestion of Tribhuvan international Airport (TIA). The runway of the airport is 3,000 meters long and 45 meter wide and is set to have CAT I standard Instrument Landing System (ILS).
