Bids for Bhairahawa airport project to be invited soon
KATHMANDU, JUL 10 -
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said that preparations are at the final stages to invite bids for the development of Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa into a regional international airport .
The ministry began work to invite tenders after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged to provide additional funding for the project. The first phase of construction at Gautam Buddha Airport was originally planned to start by the end of 2011. It is expected to be completed within three years.
The project hit a roadblock due to lack of resources after a fresh study showed that another US$ 53 million would be required to complete it. An earlier survey carried out by the ADB four years ago had estimated that the upgradation would cost around $ 36 million.
“The revised project cost now stands at $ 90.6 million,” said Ashok Kumar Shrestha, project manager of the Gautam Buddha Airport Upgrading Project. “The ADB has given the go-ahead for the project. However, we are waiting for its final assurance letter.”
A $ 99.5 million project has been formulated to build the airport at Bhairahawa and infrastructure at Lumbini. The airport component has been valued at $ 90.6 million. The project will be financed by a loan and grant aid of $ 42.96 million and $ 12.75 million respectively from the ADB under the South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project.
The OPEC Fund for International Development, as a co-financing arm of the ADB, is providing a $ 15 million loan. The Nepal government will be contributing $ 29.17 million to the project. A visitor information desk, tourism promotion activities and electricity vehicles, among other projects, have been planned in Lumbini under the same package.
According to Bal Krishna Ghimire, joint secretary at the ministry, the airport runway was earlier proposed to be 2,600 m long. However, realizing the need for an international standard airport , the runway’s length was later proposed to be extended to 3,000 m.
The airport will serve as an alternative to the country’s sole international airport Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, said Ghimire. “Lack of a secondary international airport has compelled a large number of international flights to be diverted to Kolkata and Lucknow, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh, among other airport s, when problems arise at TIA.
Ministry officials said that the project would be a milestone for the country’s tourism development. They added that proper infrastructure could turn Lumbini into an international pilgrimage hub. The number of tourists coming to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha located in south central Nepal, has been rising steadily since 2010.
A number of international airlines, particularly from East Asia, have shown interest in connecting Lumbini directly if there was an international-standard airport .
After the first phase of the upgradation project, Gautam Buddha Airport will have a capacity to handle 600,000 passengers annually. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the project’s executing agency, has aimed to complete the entire project by 2030. The airport will be able to handle up to 6 million passengers annually when it is complete.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
