Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has finalized to sign an agreement with Kalika-Tundi, a Nepali joint venture for the runway extension project after receiving legal advice.
Previously, the contract agreement on the runway extension project became uncertain as one of the partner of a Nepali joint venture became engulfed in a corruption case.
CAAN was confused whether to award the Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project (ACEP) to Kalika-Tundi or not as the issue of corruption was filed against Former Minister Bikram Pandey.
Sanjeev Gautam, Director General of CAAN stated that as per the legal adviser, it won’t affect the projects as case has been filed against an individual not the company. Therefore, law allows to sign a pact with the company. “Beside from our legal advisers, we also cleared our doubt by independent legal advisers,” he added. He also informed that the contract would be signed soon.
According to Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project , they are likely to sign a pact with Kalika-Tundiu with worth nearly NRs 1 billion.
Previously, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) terminated the contract with no-show Chinese contractor company Shanxi Construction Engineering Group who took the responsibility of 300m runway extension of TIA in August.
Shanxi Construction Engineering Group of China and CAAN had contracted to extend the runway of sole international airport of country by 300 meters at its southern end or runway 02 in last October. However, the company didn’t commence the work complaining about increment in prices of construct.
TIA remains closed frequently these days following the repetitive cracks appeared in the runway due to which aircraft are compelled to hold in the sky creating a problem for the airline operators and airport management. New international airline operators have shown interest and applied for flight permissions to Nepal whereas domestic airlines are increasing their fleet in a competitive manner. This trend has pressurized TIA more which is now desperately in need of enhancement project to cater to the growing demand of airlines and passengers until other under construction international airports around the country come into operation.
CAAN had contracted Spanish company Constructora Sanjose for the same project but was ripped off in end of 2016 for performing only 17% of work in almost 4 years from the time of contract period. CAAN had invited bids in mid-2017 and broke the project into 4 packages and provided it to different contractor.
