CAAN announces tender for Gautam Buddha Airport

KATHMANDU:

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), today, announced an International Competitive Bidding in accordance with Asian Development Bank guidelines for the construction of necessary infrastructure at Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa. The bidding is open till January 11, 2014.

“The eligible bidders must have a minimum average annual turnover of $53 million over the last three years, and must have been involved in at least two projects of a similar nature worth $63 million each over the last 10 years,” states the CAAN office. CAAN announced the tender for the construction of airside and landside infrastructure and other facilities at the airport on behalf of the government. The tender announcement was possible after the final approval of additional funds by Asian Development Bank. The upgradation project was withheld after its cost soared to $90 million after a Korean company completed the final design and construction survey.

Some of the works under the Gautam Buddha Airport Upgrading Component are construction of a new runway, exit and parallel taxiway with flexible pavements, construction of new international aircraft parking apron with rigid pavements, rehabilitation of the existing runway for conversion to parallel taxiway, and diversion of Ghaghara Khola along the airport boundary.

The other works include construction of internal and external periphery road, airport access road, fuel farm access road, cargo access road and security chain link fencing, and construction of new international passenger terminal building, among others.

A study conducted in 2007-08 had estimated the total project cost to be at around $38.15 million. The project received a new lease of life after ADB agreed to provide the required additional fund to upgrade the airport to a regional international airport.

The estimated cost of the project is $90 million, of which $68 million will be provided by ADB, while CAAN will bear $11 million and the remainder will be covered through various government resources.

Due to the failure to arrange adequate funds on time, the government had postponed its plan to complete the Gautam Buddha Airport upgradation project by two years from 2015. It is now expected to be completed by 2017, which actually was a five-year project (2010-2015) under the South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project–Nepal.

According to CAAN, Gautam Buddha Airport is the only airport in the country, which is the best alternative for diverting the increasing flight pressure at Tribhuvan International Airport. As nothing concrete has happened regarding second international airport in Nijgarh, aviation industry is looking forward to GBA as the only alternative that can handle the growing traffic once it is completed.

International tourist arrivals have increased by 60 per cent from 500,000 in 2009 to around 800,000 in 2012, and the government’s Tourism Vision 2020 envisages further increment of two million in 2020.

Source: THT