New report to be made for Second International Airport by Tourism Ministry
November 22, 2016- Kathmandu
In a joint meeting of Parliamentary Finance and Development committees, a decision was finalized to commence the process for the preparation of another Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the proposed Second International Airport (SIA) located in Bara, Nijgadh according to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation.
The decision was made after Civil Aviation authority of Nepal (CAAN) provided the cost estimate for the project which is about Rs. 121 billion.
Anticipated to be the biggest international airport in South Asia in terms of area, the intended airport in Nijgadh, positioned 175 kilometers south of Kathmandu, will be extended over 80 square kilometers.
Korea’s Landmark Worldwide Company (LMW) was given to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study of the airport project to the government in March 2010 which reported an estimate of Rs. 82 billion for the project with a proposal of establishing the airport under the “build own operate and transfer” (Boot) model.
The first phase would cost Rs. 65 billion while Rs. 7.78 billion for the second phase and finally, the third phase would cost Rs. 8.79 billion as per the report which cost about Rs. 3.55 million for the study.
The government has decided to build the project using its own resources and the ministry is in dilemma over the approach through which the airport will be constructed. According to Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the preparation of the DPR of the project is along the process for starting construction and the government is going to consider the LMW report to implement the fundamental contents.
The meeting which was conducted on Sunday notified the government about the transparency of the contract agreement and told to state the model it is going to espouse.
CAAN has projected constructing a 4,000-metre runway after a prefatory financial analysis while LMW’s plan has a 3,600-metre runway. Likewise, Caan has decided to establish a 100,000-square-metre international passenger terminal building against to the 75,000-square-metre building which is proposed by LMW.
The airport will be able to handle 15 million passengers every year and also take in the super-aircraft Airbus A380 after the first phase of construction according to the feasibility study of Korea.
