Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal along with Committee of Directors for Gautam Buddha International Airport has almost come off with the conclusion to terminate the contract of the airport construction project with North West Construction Company of China. The authority bodies are currently working on the documentation to terminate the contract with the Chinese Contractors being annoyed by the slow progress at the construction site.
Om Sharma, Project Manager reported that the board has continuously been poking project contractors for their steady and unsatisfactory construction works. Though been sent grievance on several occasions no any improvement has been noticed, he added.
The project management committee had also requested the contractors for the specified reason for the delayed construction but haven’t progressed their work said, Sharma. As been noticed the dispute regarding the monetary transact with the sub contractor has affected the Chinese company’s progress, he added.
Previously North West had appointed North West Infra Nepal as its sub contractor and supplier of construction materials for Gautam Buddha Airport but the sub contractor fleed away with the advance payment without supplying the construction materials resulting in delayed construction progress for the Chinese Contractors. It was also notified that several bills of suppliers are yet to be paid by North West and none of the suppliers of the region are willing to work with the Chinese Contractor due to pending bills.
In general, the construction site was to achieve 6% of construction each month which was just achieved 0.5% previously. So analyzing the issue Gautam Buddha International airport is likely to issue a new tender bid to complete the pending construction job as early as possible. Sharma also reported that the locals along with high officials have been pressurizing the management committee to complete the project as early as possible.
Previously Finance ministry has separated 23 Billions of Nepali budget to compensate the invaded land at the airport. The airport authority had also hired international contract management experts for report analysis on the risk of contract termination which had been linked as the termination of the contract for North West Contractors.
Late P.M Sushil Koirala had paved the foundation stone of the airport in December 2014 and North West had committed to complete the project by the end of December this year but continuous circumstances on several occasion had pushed the date back.The North West Construction Company took the responsibility of project completion with a budget of Nrs. 6.23 billion in 2014 but are now more likely to be terminated.
Earlier the Chinese contractor had committed to complete 40 percent of building works until June this year but have only managed to achieve 25 percent only so far. If the Chinese Construction Company gets terminated, it won’t be the first incident of contract termination made by the government such drastically with underperforming contractors. Previously Tourism Ministry and CAAN has already terminated Sanjose, the Spanish renovation contractor of Tribhuwan International Airport for same results. The Spanish contractor was also black listed for their slow job by Tourism Ministry and CAAN.
