The construction work lengthening of the runway of Tribhuwan International Airport is at final stage. According to chief of Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project Murari Bhandari, the work of lengthening the runway will complete by next months.

Bhandari said that the expansion work will be expected to complete by June 15 reports Deshsanchar.

The construction work is carried out by Nepali joint venture Kalika-Tundi

The cost of lengthening 300 meters runway at its southern end or runway 02 is around Rs.1 billion.

Currently, there is no overrun area at the northern end of the runway. If a plane taking off from this end runs out of runway, it could plunge into a ravine 50-60 meters deep. For this reason, it was decided to lengthen the runway at the southern end.

TIA recorded robust international passenger traffic growth in the first nine months of the year despite infrastructure bottlenecks.

After completing other work, now the laying of final layer of top level pavement is undergoing. According to Bhandari, there require to lay 26 centimeter blacktop. As the airport has shut down due to nationwide lockdown, the contractor is now working in the day time. He said that 75 percent of the work has already completed till now.

Bhandari also said that the laborers are given adequate safety protection to prevent spread of coronavirus. He said the contractors have been following the guidelines like physical distancing, hand washing and sanitizing.

Photo: Deshsanchar