KATHMANDU: The government’s plan to hand over the responsibility of constructing the Nijgadh International Airport to Zurich International Airport of Switzerland has failed.
Since the Zurich International Airport failed to meet the deadline to submit the detailed operational proposal today, the government’s initial preparations have turned out to be futile.
A total of seven companies had filed their applications in response to the call made by the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) to construct the airport. Among the applications that it had received, IBN had decided to hand over contract to Zurich International Airport.
Accordingly, the board had on January 17 published a notice seeking the proposal within one month. The deadline had been extended as the Zurich airport failed to submit its proposal on time.
Moreover, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the IBN had further extended the deadline till September 30.However, Zurich International Airport has failed to submit its proposal even within this extended deadline, according to the board.
With this new development, the process to select a company to construct the Nijgadh International Airport has come to halt.
According to the board, the Zurich International Airport had been insisting that it would submit the proposal for Nijgadh International Airport only if it was given the operational responsibility of Tribhuvan International Airport along with the responsibility to construct the Nijgadh International Airport.
The board at present has yet to decide on what further steps need to be taken now so that the process to construct the Nijgadh International Airport can be given continuity.