The preparation of lighting and marking on the runway of Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) is being carried out.
The project informed that the preparation for lighting and marking on the runway is going on after the completion the construction of the runway.
The construction of 3000 meter long runway has finally been completed.
According to the project, the contract has been signed with Aero Thai of Thailand for the work of lighting and marking on the runway.
Prabesh Adhikari, chief of the project stated that the contract has been signed in NRs 550 Million.
After the contract agreement, Aero Thai had started preparation for necessary equipments.
Adhikari said that the devices connection will be completed within 8-10 days.
At present, nearly 73 per cent of the construction work has been completed.
Chief Adhikari said that the preparation for operating international flights from June 2020 is going on by aiming to complete all the construction work within 2019.
The works of other structures are carried out following the completion of the construction of the runway, the main aspect of the construction project is completed.
3km of the runway was blacktopped in 6 months though it was targeted to complete within 4 months.
Due to lack of riverbed materials and petroleum substances, the blacktopping was completed in 6 months.
According to the Chief Adhikari, the thickness of the runway is 30cm and blacktopped in four levels of 7.5 cm.
“The construction of taxiway has completed three out of four layers. The fourth layer of blacktopping the runway has started and the work of apron has completed,” said Adhikari.
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.
Old runway will be used as taxiway and the government has stated to operate the airport for international flight within this year.
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.
Works of Terminal building, control tower, water reservoir and other infrastructure has been going on accordingly.
According to the criteria of the International Civil Aviation Organization, this airport is the ‘Four E’ level airport. This airport is being constructed with a target of providing services to 6 million passengers per year.
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 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).
