Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has decided to cancel the contract with Chinese Company for not commencing the work of lengthening the runway of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) despite repetitive reminders. 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 commenced the work complaining about increment in prices of construct.
Package 1, construction of major airside and infrastructure improvement work funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) was awarded to Chinese contractor but now CAAN is preparing to terminate the contract said Director General Sanjiv Gautam and stated that the project will be awarded to the second among the shortlisted bidders as per the Public Procurement Act. ADB has also given go-ahead for the process and the Chinese company could forfeit its Rs70 million performance bond.
CAAN had proposed to extend the runway by 300 meters at southern part so that aircraft will have space to stop when an aircraft making its takeoff roll from the northern end aborts takeoff. Currently there is no overrun area at the northern end and if aircraft taking off from the end runs out of runway, it could sink into a ravine 50-60 meters deep.
This is the second time CAAN’s runway extension plan was cancelled and the project is now likely to be delayed by a year. Previously 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.
Package 2 or NCB-02 which is related to expansion of Terminal Building contract has been given to Nepali Company ‘Sharma Prera Ashishal’. Package 3 or NCB-03 is about the Generator installation along with light installation contract that has been given to Nepali company ‘Ashish and Prera Joint Venture’. Package 4 consists of soil filling works on the northern side of the airport but no signs of project 4 are seen as extension of runway is not still fixed.
