ADB to continue support to Bhairahawa airport

Kathmandu, Mar. 22: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said that it would continue to provide loans and grants to the Gautam Buddha International Airport, which is under construction in Bhairahawa.

Saying that the construction work at the project was not satisfactory, the ADB had halted loans and grants to it since January 2018.

But Country Director of the ADBMukhtorKhamudkhanov said that the money would be disbursed to the project. He made this comment after monitoring the progress at the construction site on Thursday.

A monitoring team, which included Khamudkhanov, BaidhkanthaYogal from the Project Implementation Unit, Project chief Om Sharma and staff of the Chinese contractor company, North West Civil Aviation, visited the airport and monitored the construction work.

Khamudkhanov expressed dissatisfaction over the delayed construction of the national pride project and directed the project and the contractors to complete 50 per cent of the work by the end of this fiscal year 2017/18.

He also said that the ADB would hold discussion with the government on it.

The project was launched about three years ago with the deadline of 2017 end. But the project has achieved only 35 per cent progress so far.

According to Sharma, construction work has caught pace after September 2017, and the ADB has become positive to the project after witnessing the progress at the site.

The Chinese contractor had asked an extension of the term of the project citing the blockade, Madhesh unrest and earthquake.

The ADB had consented to provide Rs. 540 million in grants and Rs. 200 million in loans to the airport, which will not only help in reducing the air traffic at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the only international airport in the country, as well as serve the tourists and pilgrims who want to go to Lumbini directly.