The runway rehabilitation project of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), a sole international airport of Nepal has boosted up the pace.
As per the airport source, 2220 meters of the runway has upgraded till now.
Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) initiated the runway rehabilitation on April 1, 2019 (Baisakh 18).
The runway of 2220 meters had been upgraded in a month and 21 days. The existing pitch of the runway is being removed and new pitch is being laid.
Baburam Poudel, Director of Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project of CAAN stated the maintenance work of the runway is further progressed in the war level and expressed the confidence that the work will be completed before the specified time.
According to him, the management of necessary material and adequate manpower has been mobilized to change the pitch of the runway.
Poudel said that the repair work could be done within 90 days.
For the first time in the Aviation History of Nepal, the runway of airport is going to upgraded completely. The up-gradation work of the runway of TIA is carried out from 10 PM to 8 everyday. In order to conduct advance runway rehab, the airport is closed for 10 hours a day for the three months from April 1.
Deependra Shrestha, Information Officer of the project stated that the up-gradation of 2220 meters runway was completed on Monday (May 20) whereas 830 meters is remaining to upgrade.
Shrestha said that due to effective operation of resources and manpower, there is no problem in upgrading.
TIA’s runway was built in 1975. As per the international standard, runways of international airports should be refurbished with the use of new bitumen every 10 years. TIA, however, has never done that and because of that the flight operations were affected mainly on monsoon season.
According to sources, the runway from 02 to 1600 meters was extremely damaged.
The runway of TIA is being upgraded for the first time which makes the latest maintenance work at the tarmac the biggest since its construction.
The renovation of the runway was started from 02.
Every day the runway from 80 to 100 meters is renovated after completing various processes and set at 8 AM for operation.
CAAN roped in China National Aero Technology International Engineering Corporation to complete the runway and taxiway rehabilitation work. It signed an agreement with the Chinese company on November 5, 2018. The Chinese firm has agreed to complete the work with the increase in tax Rs 4.27 billion.
