Saturday, November 28, 2015

Lately, the international airport in the Indian embargo and halt the Madhesi movement (videos)

Construction of Bhairahawa international airport has been affected by the on going Madhesh protestand India's unofficial blockade against Nepal. last year Prime Minister sushil Koirala lays foundation stone for Bhairahawa international airport. He has also urged the construction company responsible for the airport construction to pay special attention to maintaining the quality and standards of works in this present age of competition. If planned to go as usual, Nepal will have three international airports within very short nautical miles. As the construction process of Gautam Buddha International Airport is at the final stage, this will give an alternative airport, close to Kathmandu’s International Airport.Although Nepal has proposed two other international airports at Nijgadh and Pokhara in the proximity of Tribhuwan International Airport, their construction process is yet to begin. After the scrutiny, China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group has bagged the contract to upgrade Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa into a regional international airport.During the final review of the financial documents by the Asian Development Bank, the company emerged as the lowest bidder. According to reports, Northwest had quoted a price tag of Rs 5.50 billion, which is Rs 897.35 million less than the price quoted by the second lowest bidder. The aggregate cost of the project as set by its executing agency, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is Rs 6.30 billion.With the runway of 3000 meters, the airport will have the capacity of serving 760,000 passengers annually after the completion of its first phase.The contractor will construct a new runway, exit and parallel taxiways with flexible pavements, new international aircraft parking apron with rigid pavements. The contractor will also rehabilitate the existing runway for conversion into parallel taxiway, drainage system parallel to the runway, taxiway and diversion of the Ghaghara Khola and airport boundary.Likewise, the other short listed firms are China Overseas Engineering Group, China’s Sino Hydro Corporation and Spain’s Isolux-Corsan which had quoted Rs 6.77 billion, Rs 7.20 billion and Rs 7.21 billion respectively.The airport in Bhairahawa which is being upgraded into a regional international airport is the gateway to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. Of the total project cost, ADB will provide $ 58.50 million ($ 42.75 in loans and $ 15.75 million in grants), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) will give $ 15 million loan and CAAN will bear the rest as counterpart funding.