After dithering for two years, the Tourism Ministry formally ended the process of appointing Germany’s Munich Airport as operator of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa.

The government decision will allow the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to add Nepal’s second international airport to its portfolio, despite its operational efficiency at Tribhuvan International Airport being questioned for decades.

Located in south central Nepal, the airport developed under the Asian Development Bank's South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project will serve as the gateway to the international pilgrimage destination of Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha.

The airport with a 3,000-metre-long and 45-metre-wide runway is in the final phase of construction with the work of installing communications, navigation and surveillance equipment, including the meteorological instruments, being held up by the lockdown.

Ministry officials, however, say that the option of appointing international world class airport management partners in the near future remains wide open, and that it would be done through open competition or a government-to-government deal.

“A ministerial-level decision was taken two weeks ago. The process of appointing any management partners through a government-to-government deal has formally ended,” said Tourism Joint Secretary Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane.

“As we don’t see any international players coming to operate the airport for at least three years due to a post-pandemic weak tourism scenario, we have decided to give the responsibility to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal instead of keeping its operation in limbo,” said Lamichhane.

Last month, a government committee had recommended that a number of projects planned under government-to-government deals have sparked controversy in Nepal over their transparency. “We don’t have laws clearly defining the G2G modality. And, as we have received proposals from Munich only, we may get into trouble,” said Lamichhane.

The government is under heavy pressure to improve the efficiency of the sole international airport in Kathmandu that is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority.

In June last year, the cabinet had given its 'in principle' approval to the Tourism Ministry’s proposal to appoint foreign firms through a government-to-government deal.

Subsequently, in November, the government formed a six-member team to negotiate with the German airport after it expressed interest in operating the new airport in January. The Tourism Ministry had also asked the company to submit a detailed plan.

But before Munich Airport could submit its detailed plan, including the operation modality, fees and revenue sharing system, the Covid-19 pandemic came up.

Questions of transparency have been raised over a number of G2G projects such as the setting up of a security printing press and procurement of machine-readable passports, satellite and medical equipment. Most of the projects were eventually cancelled. The latest controversy being the procurement of six Chinese-made planes for Nepal Airlines.

Airport Progress

After several postponements, Gautam Buddha International Airport was slated for completion in March. Most of the equipment for the airport would come from China, but the shipment schedule went haywire after Covid-19 cases were first reported in Wuhan in December, which put an end to the manufacturing and supply.

The project, which has achieved 91 percent physical progress, may set the completion deadline for December.

The contractor has not brought runway lights, conveyor belts and baggage handling systems. This equipment had been slated to arrive through the Rasuwagadhi border point by January-end.

“With a partial easing of the lockdown and a number of countries allowing cargo movement, all equipment has been dispatched,” said Prabesh Adhikari, chief of the airport project.

After being closed for six months, Rasuwagadhi-Kerung, a key crossing point for Nepal-China trade, was reopened on July 6. While some pieces of equipment are on the way or have arrived at Kolkata port in India, some have arrived in Birgunj, said Adhikari.

“We expect all equipment to be delivered within three months,” he said, adding that the challenge now was to bring skilled manpower to install the equipment as foreign airlines are still restricted from entering Nepal and a majority of countries.

Adhikari said that all materials required for the second package—installation of Communication, Navigation and Surveillance, Air Traffic Management and Meteorological equipment—had arrived. “We are waiting for technicians to install them as they are not available in Nepal. Most of the engineers are from the United States and Austria,” he said.

According to Adhikari, installation of all the equipment will take at least two months, and another month will be needed to test them. “If we get technicians in August, the airport will be ready for operation by the end of this year,” he said.

Under the civil works component, the airport has to complete a 10-km perimeter road that encircles the airport.

Construction work at Gautam Buddha International Airport began in January 2015. The Civil Aviation Authority awarded the Rs6.22-billion contract to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013.

The airport was initially slated to be ready in December 2017. But the project suffered multiple hurdles that pushed back the completion deadline several times.