Two Indian companies on short list for Kathmandu's international airport project

Kathmandu: Two Indian construction companies have been short listed for a project to improve Nepal's lone international airport in Kathmandu. The project involves overlay work for the runway and taxiway at the Tribhuvan International Airport in the mountain kingdom's capital.

The two Indian companies, New Delhi's IRCON International Limited and an Indo-Nepal joint venture between Mumbai's Valecha Engineering Ltd and local partner YP Construction, are among six companies that have qualified to bid for the project.

According to the directorate of the Tribhuvan International Airport improvement project, which is overseeing the work, the bidding process is expected to take about two-and-a-half months.

The Indian companies are facing off against four Sino-Nepalese joint ventures. Unlike their Indian counterparts, all the four Chinese companies have some presence in the Kathmandu valley. The four Chinese firms are the China Railway Engineering Corporation, which is partnering Nepali Tundi Construction, China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group with Kalika Construction as its local partner, a joint venture between China Gezhouba Water and Power Group Corporation and Nepal's PS Construction, and Sinohydro Corporation with local partner Chitwon Co-Enepal.

Interestingly, Sinohydro Corporation hit the headlines this month when the local media reported that it had taken Nepali workers to work on a project in Oman without the permission of the Nepal government. Some 400 Nepali workers were said to have been left stranded in Oman by the Chinese company that ran into trouble with the local authorities over project costs.

The last time a tender was issued for the same work was in 1996, when the contract went to a Chinese company, Sietco.