The $92-million Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project has been stalled indefinitely despite two deadline extensions as the slowpoke contractor hasn’t been able to get its act together. 

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has not officially decided to terminate the agreement with the contractor. 

A Caan board of directors meeting last Friday had recommended that the agreement with the Spanish contractor Constructora Sanjose be cancelled as the project has achieved only 17 percent physical progress in the last six years. Caan has been awaiting the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) consent before it scraps the deal. The ADB has provided $80 million in loan and grant and the government has put up $12 million for the scheme which has since been renamed as air transport capacity enhancement project. 

Work started in December 2010 and was slated to be completed in 2015. The deadline was extended to March 2016 after the project stalled due to the earthquake and fuel shortage last year. The deadline was again pushed backed to 2018. “We don’t see any signs that the project will be completed by 2020 either,” Tourism Minister Jeeban Bahadur Shahi told a press meet on Tuesday. He added that the Spanish contractor Sanjose had said that the project would not be completed before 2020. “Now we have no alternative but to terminate the contract.” 

Minister Shahi did not comment on the Caan board’s recommendation. He, however, said that the ADB had floated the idea of dividing the project works into different packages—runway and taxiway works, airport terminal building and land filling works. “The board has decided to fire the contractor. But it is yet to be formalized,” said a board member in condition of anonymity. “We are waiting for the ADB’s okay.” 

The project hit a snag as the soil to be used as filler for the expansion of the runway was not available. It has also been prevented from extracting sand from the Pashupati area due to a court case related to environmental issues. Tourism Ministry officials said that they needed to wait for a final verdict since they could not set any dates for resuming work as the case was sub judice. 

“The only problem is that the project has not been able to obtain supplies of building materials, and the contractor does not seem to be in a position to find another source,” the board member said. 

The ADB has not commented on the issue. However, Caan sources said that the bank’s office in Nepal had forwarded a proposal to terminate the contract to its headquarters in Manila and was awaiting word. 

After the completion of the project, TIA will be able to handle more than 5.85 million passengers annually and accommodate bigger aircraft.