--By TC Correspondent
The Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide a soft loan of USD 50 million for the upgrading of the Gautam Budhha Airport in Bhairahawa. “ADB has already decided to provide the loan assistance. What remains now is the formalization of the decision by the ADB Board,” said Madhu Kumar Marasini, chief of the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division under the Ministry of Finance (MoF). “The Bank seems positive to provide an additional loan of USD 30 million later,” he informed The Corporate, adding that the upgrading of the airport will be completed by the end of 2018.
Towards the end of the year 2012, ADB had agreed to provide a soft loan of USD 36 million for the project. Back then, it was estimated that a total amount of USD 42 million would be required to complete the upgrading of the airport. However, the project became uncertain after a Korean consultant put the estimated amount at USD 77 million for the project.
The latest estimate has put the total amount at USD 95.05 million, according to Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). “CAAN will invest USD 22 million for the upgrading of the airport,” he said. CAAN has already announced an international competitive bidding in accordance with ADB’s guidelines for the construction of necessary infrastructure at the airport.
According to CAAN, the upgrading of the airport will be done in two phases – civil work and installation of electronic devices and other equipment. In the first phase of the upgradation work, a 3000-metre runway, control tower, international terminal building, taxi way, fire brigade building, maintenance building, air cargo building and security posts etc will be constructed. Construction of these necessary infrastructures will begin by mid-2014.
