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Gautam Buddha Airport Project: Chinese contractor at risk of termination
As the Gautam Buddha Airport project in Bhairahawa has slowed to a crawl, the project has hired international contract management experts to analyse risk of terminating contract with the non-performing contractor.As the Gautam Buddha Airport project in Bhairahawa has slowed to a crawl, the project has hired international contract management experts to analyse risk of terminating contract with the non-performing contractor.
The airport in Bhairahawa—gateway to the pilgrimage destination of Lumbini in south central Nepal—is being upgraded to an international airport.
Experts have already started their work in Nepal. Sources said the move could be a signal before the project contractor, China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group, is terminated for its non-performance.
The contractor had pledged to achieve 40 percent of physical progress till June. However, by the third week of July, the project had only achieved a meagre 25 percent of physical progress.
If terminated, it will not be the first time that the government has taken the drastic measure of terminating contracts with underperforming contractors.
The government has already fired the project contractor of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project for its non-performance.
Recently, the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) blacklisted the ousted Spanish contractor of the TIA improvement project for failing to complete government projects within the deadline and non-cooperation with authorities.
The blacklisting will bar the contractor, Constructora Sanjose, from competing in any project in Nepal for a period of two years.
The contractor of Gautam Buddha project could be a second example, said an official from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), the project executing agency.
Due to a dispute over payments between the contractor and an illegally appointed subcontractor, the project has progressed at a snail’s pace, achieving not even 1 percent of monthly physical progress in the past five months.
The dispute over payments between the Chinese contractor Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group and the Nepali sub-contractor Northwest Infra Nepal has stalled work at the Gautam Buddha Airport project construction site since March. It is yet to be resolved.
The dispute has adversely affected the progress of the national pride project, said Om Sharma, chief of the project. “Literally, nothing has been done since March,” he said, adding that the project has a strong reason to terminate the contract. “The contractor has failed to comply with the pledges it has made on different occasions.”
The experts will suggest appropriate measures to terminate the contract and also the solution to resume the project, according to Caan officials.
Last March, Wan Ziandong, the vice-chairman of the Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group, flew to Nepal after the government warned that the contract awarded to the Chinese company would be terminated if it failed to meet the project completion deadline.
“We are still in wait and see position. But we will not wait long this time around,” said Sharma.
The airport was originally slated to be ready in December 2017. However, shortages of fuel and building materials due to a months-long Tarai banda in 2015 delayed work
by six months and its operation deadline was extended to June 2018.
But another trouble began soon after Chinese contractor illegally appointed a subcontractor without informing the project executing agency. The problem has further pushed back the project completion deadline to 2019.
The government awarded the contract to upgrade Gautam Buddha Airport into an international airport to the Chinese company in October 2014.
The national pride project has been envisaged to serve the fast-rising business and industrial hub of Bhairahawa and facilitate international pilgrimage tourism to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha.