Vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, Min Bahadur Shrestha, has directed developer of the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa to ramp up construction works, warning the government will not listen to their excuses if the project is not completed within the deadline.

“Many people are keenly awaiting completion of the project within the deadline [of June 2018],” said Shrestha after conducting on-site visit of the project.

“But things are not moving ahead at a desired pace, although there is nothing that is preventing the developer from working in full capacity,” Shrestha added.

He further said the project is of strategic importance to the country and the government is willing to extend any support to ensure its timely completion.

The initial plan of the government was to complete construction of the airport by December 2017. But shortages of fuel and building materials due to the months-long Tarai banda and Indian trade embargo delayed construction works and pushed back completion deadline.

After these problems were over, the government had even extended permission to the developer to extract sand and gravel required for the project from the Tinau River using mechanical devices.

Since then physical progress of the project has gone up by a notch to 26 percent, but this is not adequate to meet 50 percent progress target by the end of this fiscal year in mid-July.

“Works have been moving ahead slowly after Dashain and Tihar festivals ,” said Om Sharma, chief of the project.

To meet the target set for this year, around 300 construction workers, 65 to 70 trucks and tippers, and half a dozen rollers and graders should have been mobilised at the construction site, according to Sharma.

“But that has not happened,” said Sharma.

As construction works could not gather pace, the project office has already warned the Chinese contractor about this issue, added Sharma.

“We are ready to offer incentives if the contractor completes the work ahead of schedule,” said Shrestha.

“The practice of delaying construction works by coming up with various excuses was prevalent in the past. We will not tolerate that anymore and replace the contractor that fails to perform works on time.”

The contract to upgrade the airport was awarded to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013. Of the $90.6 million project cost, the civil works component is valued at Rs6.30 billion.