Upgradation work at Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa is expected to resume in a week’s time after payment disputes between the contractor and the subcontractor brought the project to a grinding halt two weeks ago.

The Chinese contractor for the project, Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group, had asked for five days to conduct an assessment of the work completed so far. The deadline ended on Sunday.

As per the understanding reached between the project and the contractor last Monday, the contractor has another seven days to settle payment issues.

Work came to a halt after the Chinese contractor claimed full payment had been released to subcontractor Northwest Infra Nepal but the Nepali firm said it had not received all the money.

Nirvik Chitrakar (Khanal), son of former premier and senior CPN-UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal, is the managing director of Northwest Infra Nepal. It had been contracted to supply construction materials, labourers, fuel and heavy-duty vehicles. However, it abruptly stopped work claiming that the Chinese had not paid it fully.

Since the Chinese contractor had appointed a subcontractor illegally without informing the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), the project executing agency, the issue has been left for the two parties to settle themselves, said Raj Kumar Cheetri, deputy director general of Caan. 

“The Chinese and Nepali firms have made a separate ‘close’ agreement, but there are no witnesses from Caan or the lender Asian Development Bank (ADB),” he said. “Hence, the agreement is illegal.” However, to avoid legal problems, both parties can settle the payment issue separately, he added.

Om Prakash Sharma, chief of the Gautam Buddha Upgradation Project, said that talks between the two parties to settle the payment issue had been progressing positively. “We expect the issue to be settled within a couple of days.” He added that some workers hired by the Chinese contractor had returned to work. “The project has not come to a complete stop.”

Wan Ziandong, vice-chairman of the Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group, arrived in Nepal last Monday after the government said that the contract would be cancelled if the project was not completed by the deadline.

According to project officials, the Chinese contractor has received Rs1.30 billion from the project executing agency, but it has completed only Rs650 million worth of construction works.

The contractor has been given a deadline of March 30 to complete 30 percent of the physical works at the project site. So far, only 21 percent of the work has been done.

The government awarded the contract to upgrade Gautam Buddha airport into an international airport to the Chinese company in October 2014. The airport was originally slated to be ready by December 2017. However, shortages of fuel and building materials due to the months-long Tarai banda in 2015 delayed work by six months, and its operation deadline was extended to June 2018.

The latest problems are likely to push back the project completion deadline further to 2019.