Officials at Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) said the government is targeting to complete first phase of the upgradation by September 2014. [break]
After the upgradation, the airport will have the capacity of handling 600,000 passengers annually along with Boeing 757 (catergory 4E level aircraft). The new runway of GBA will be 3,000 meter long and 60 meter wide.
Suman Shrestha, deputy director general at CAAN, said the constructions will begin from September. “We expect first phase of the construction to complete in two years,” he added.
Constructions of the first phase is expected to cost $ 38 million. The government has received a soft loan for this purpose from Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project, Nepal. The government will contribute 15 percent of the cost.
However, the government is yet to receive permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India for use of Indian Airspace while operating international flights. Officials at CAAN said it will coordinate to get the permission at the earliest.
GBA will be spread over 13,000 square meters after the upgradation. Shrestha said refurbishment and expansion of existing terminal building will be carried out and a new international terminal building will be constructed. GBA will feature new control tower, customs and cargo building, crash fire building and others.
The upgradation plan also includes construction of new runway, exit taxiway with flexible pavement, new international aircraft parking apron with rigid pavement, construction of periphery road, rehabilitation of the existing runway for conversion to parallel taxiway with flexible pavement. Similarly, improvement of water supply, sewerage and strom water drainage, diversion of Ghanghra river along with airport boundary and construction of security chain link fencing are also part of the planning.
The government is currently receiving technical proposal under prequalification process, to be followed by financial bidding, which will be called in April. “Bidders who qualify the technical requirements set by ADB can alone participate in the financial bidding,” Shrestha said.
By the end of the last phase, which is targeted to be completed in 2030, GBA will have capacity of handling up to 6 million passengers annually.
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