The construction project of Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) has attained 50 percent of physical progress. The first phase of the construction i.e. base work for 3000 meters long and 60 meters wide runway is completed.
The runway will be blacktopped starting from the month of September. In order to blacktop the runway, the authority has proceeded towards bringing bitumen from India. The construction work of second phase which is base course build for runway will be completed in the next few days and the third phase of blacktopping work will be started.
Recently, locals have suspended their two days long strike at GBIA project site. Locals had protested against the authority by setting up tents in runway site which is being constructed for delay in distribution of compensation for land acquisition process.
The project had already released 6 billion to around 800 peoples 3-4 months ago and halted the distribution stating lack of budget. About 2,500 families will get compensation from the last land acquisition for the airport for which 23 billion will be required. The construction will commence as soon as the protest halts.
The project was awarded to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013 for Rs. 6.22 arba and was expected to be completed by end of 2017 but due to shortages of fuel and building materials and due to the months-long Terai closure in 2015 delayed the works by six months along with dispute between the Chinese contractor and the Nepali sub-contractor, Northwest Infra Nepal, and its operation deadline was revised to June 2018 and now to 2019.
