Editorial
Don’t walk away
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown signs of rolling back its previous plan to discontinue providing financial support to upgrade Bhairahawa airport into an international airport.The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown signs of rolling back its previous plan to discontinue providing financial support to upgrade Bhairahawa airport into an international airport. The Manila-based multilateral lending institution is yet to formally inform the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), the aviation regulatory body which is overseeing the project’s implementation, about the change in plan. But it is likely to do so soon, as it is said it has expressed satisfaction over the pace at which construction work is moving ahead.
The Caan awarded the Rs6.22 billion contract to upgrade Gautam Buddha Airport to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013. The airport was initially slated to be ready in December 2017. However, shortages of fuel and building materials due to the months-long economic blockade in 2015 delayed the upgradation works by six months, and its operation deadline was revised to June 2018.
Subsequently, a dispute over payments between the Chinese contractor and the Nepali sub-contractor, Northwest Infra Nepal, stalled work at the construction site for more than six months. Since then, the project completion deadline has been extended to June 2019.
Following continuous delays in project completion, the ADB had earlier informed the government that it would not finance the project. But after the overhaul of the Chinese company’s management, the construction work has picked up pace.
As of now, 35 percent of the physical work at the project site have been completed. Caan expects 50 percent of the physical work to be completed by June-end. If construction continues at this pace, the entire construction work will be completed by September 2019.
Considering these developments, the ADB should not walk away from one of its flagship projects in Nepal, which is crucial for the development of the tourism and economic sectors. If it abandons the project, the government will have to mobilise funds on its own, which will take additional time. This will further delay construction of the crucial infrastructure project.
The Gautam Buddha Airport Project is crucial for a country like Nepal, which currently has only one international airport. The shortage of international airports has compelled flights that cannot land at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu to divert to India or other countries. This has pushed up operation costs of airline companies and tarnished the country’s reputation in the international tourism market.
The project is also crucial to divert traffic from the heavily-congested TIA. The gridlock at TIA has been restricting international airline companies from increasing flight frequency to Nepal, limiting the flow of international visitors. If the new airport is built, more tourists are expected to visit Nepal, especially the international pilgrimage site of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, which is located 22 km from the project site. The new airport will also serve the fast-rising business and industrial hub of Bhairahawa.
An ADB team has recently visited the project site and taken stock of the on-going progress. It should recommend ways to expedite construction work and create a new timeline for completion of the project rather than walk away from it.