The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to seek clarification from Tourism Minister Jitendra Dev and Physical Planning and Transport Minister Bir Bahadur Balayar for their absence from a meeting convened to discuss the construction delays of the Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa.

More than three dozen members of the PAC had flown to Bhairahawa to hold a public hearing and question the concerned officials and contractors over the delays last week.

The Bhairahawa meeting took place after two gatherings planned earlier were postponed at the last hour following requests from the Parliament Secretariat without concrete reason. “The public hearing was concluded somehow but that was not fruitful due to the non-cooperation from the ministers,” said PAC Chairman Dor Prasad Upadhyay.

The PAC, therefore, has drafted a letter addressed to the prime minister, seeking clarification from the concerned ministers on the charge of disrespecting the PAC and the parliamentary system by skipping the meeting.

“Due to time constraints, the letters could not be delivered on Friday. They will be sent on Sunday, first hour,” said a PAC official. The committee has also asked the two ministers to furnish details and documents about the construction works on the airport in the PAC meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Gautam Buddha Airport project in Bhairahawa has slowed to a crawl due to a dispute over payments between the contractor and an illegally appointed sub-contractor. The row between the Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group and the Nepali sub-contractor Northwest Infra Nepal has stalled works at the construction site since March. The sub-contractor is headed by former PM Jhala Nath Khanal’s son Nirvik.