The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it was holding consultations whether or not to fire the contractor for the stalled $92-million Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) improvement project.

A meeting of the board of directors of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) held 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 ADB’s consent before it scraps the deal. The ADB’s Nepal Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama said that no decision had been made yet. “We are in close consultation with our headquarters in Manila.” He added that they had two options: One, hold serious discussions with the contractor if it wants to continue with the project, and two, fast-track the process to hire another contractor by terminating the current agreement. “A decision will be made in the near future.”

Yokoyama said that the ADB was seriously concerned about the progress of the TIA project. “Immediate action is required to address the existing congestion.”

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.

Last Tuesday, Tourism Minister Jeeban Bahadur Shahi said he was unconvinced that

the project would be completed by 2020 either.