Kathmandu, April 21

The ongoing expansion work of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is likely to be completed within a month.

Taking advantage of the suspension of flights due to the nationwide lockdown, the airport expansion work has been taken forth at a faster pace, said Devendra KC, general manager of TIA.

“All domestic and international flights have been halted as the country is locked down at the moment, hence we can work full time without any interruption,” he said. “Expansion work of the runway and construction of the parking bay are being carried out aggressively at the moment.”

According to him, construction of the parking bay with capacity to accommodate two wide-body aircraft and three narrow-body aircraft will be completed in the next seven days. However, expansion work of the runway will take a bit more time. TIA is expanding the length of the runway which currently is 3,050 metres long by 300 metres.

Prior to the lockdown, the construction works at TIA were being carried out by halting flight operations for a few hours. “Around 150 workers are working for 22 hours daily using all safety precautions,” KC said. “The airport has taken the responsibility of food, accommodation and health of all the workers currently working at the airport,” he added.

The runway expansion work has been divided into two segments — civil work and electrical work — of which civil work has achieved 74 per cent progress while electrical work has achieved 25 per cent progress so far. Supply of equipment required for electrical work has been affected to some extent due to the lockdown however, the construction company, A One Builders, has claimed that the work will be completed by the first week of May.

The runway expansion work had started on January 3 with a target to complete it by June 24. Although the work had been halted for one week initially due to the coronavirus, the work resumed soon after the lockdown was imposed following the government’s direction to continue with the construction activities of national pride projects.

Amid this, Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai also inspected the ongoing construction work at TIA on Monday. He has directed the construction company and the TIA management not to compromise with the workers’ health and ensure social distancing is maintained while they are working.

“We started the construction work of the national pride projects after the government set a criteria of supplying construction materials by taking into consideration all precautionary measures,” Minister Bhattarai said. “All the national pride projects have been directed to prioritise safety measures while work is being carried out,” he informed.

Prior to this, construction of taxiway, taxiway-runway link road rehabilitation, and installation of runway centreline light had already been completed. Meanwhile, renovation of international terminal building has also been completed so far.

A version of this article appears in print on April 22, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.