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Air Transport Connectivity Enhancement Project: Gelephu Airport Improvement Safeguards Monitoring Report

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Air Transport Connectivity Enhancement Project: Gelephu Airport Improvement Safeguards Monitoring Report Safeguards Monitoring Report Annual Report January 2015 BHU: Air Transport Connectivity Enhancement Project Gelephu Airport Prepared by Ministry of Information and Communications for the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Asian Development Bank. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (as of 3 March 2016) Currency unit – ngultrum (Nu) Nu1.00 = $0.01485 $1.00 = Nu67.336 ABBREVIATIONS ADB = Asian Development Bank CSC = Construction Supervision Consultant DEC = District Environment Committee DCA = Department of Civil Aviation DOF = Department of Forest EC = Environment Clearance EFRC = Environment Friendly Road Construction EMP = Environmental Management Plan ES = Environment Specialist IEE = Initial Environmental Examination NCE = National Environment Commission NRDCL = Natural Resource Development Corporation Limited NWF = National Work Force OHS = Occupational Health and Safety PC = Project Coordinator PM = Project Manager PMO = Project Management Office RGOB = Royal Government of Bhutan ROW = Right-of-way BHU = Basic Health Unit DGM = Department of Geology and mines This safeguards monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. CONTENTS I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 II. Description of Project ...................................................................................................... 1 III. Institutional Arrangements ............................................................................................... 4 IV. Status of Compliance ...................................................................................................... 4 A. Compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the Environmental Clearance ....... 4 B. Compliance with Section 8: Particular Conditions of Contract Conditions ............ 6 C. Compliance with the EMP .................................................................................... 8 V. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 9 Annex 1: Environmental clearances issues for the Gelephu airport construction ....................... 10 1 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) under Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC), Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) has initiated a plan to improve the current state of the country’s domestic air transport system under the Air Transport Connectivity Enhancement Project (ATCEP) with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB). Three newly constructed domestic airports of Bumthang (centre), Yongphula (east) and Gelephu (south) in the country have been identified for further upgrading and improvement, based on the relative importance of these airports as domestic hubs for tourism and economic development within the respective region. 2. The project was classified as Category B for environment safeguards in accordance with ADB’s Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS). Hence an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) report for the upgrading and improvement works was prepared in accordance with the SPS and disclosed on the ADB website. The IEE was also prepared in a manner to comply with relevant laws and regulations of RGoB including the Environmental Assessment Act (2000) and the Regulation for the Environmental Clearance of Projects (2001). Based on the IEE, an environmental clearance for the Gelephu airport was issued on April 25, 2013 with a validity date of April 24, 2015 by the National Environment Commission (NEC). 3. Due to the limited social and resettlement impacts the project was classified category C for social safeguards. However during project implementation after finalization of the detailed design it was found that land acquisition of 0.67 acre affecting one household would be necessary. Hence it was re-categorized to B and a Resettlement Plan (RP) was prepared and disclosed on the ADB website. The Project was categorized as C for Indigenous People impacts. 4. This monitoring report covers environmental and social safeguard activities that were implemented during construction for the Gelephu airport from January to December 2014. The report has been prepared based on the following: i) Site inspection along the entire construction site in the airport ii) Discussion with the Contractor’s Site Engineer who was also the Environmental Focal Person iii) Discussion with the contractor’s workers on site iv) Review of documents maintained on site such as environmental clearance, contract agreement including the EMP etc. and v) Interactions with the local people living near the airport II. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT 5. The proposed project scope entails the upgrading and improvement of the existing domestic airport at Gelephu, Yonphula and Bumthang. The location of the Gelephu airport including the other two domestic airports is provided in Figure 1. The proposed airport improvement is designed to bring the facility to a level of development to fully meet international airport safety standards and provide sufficient runway length to accept unrestricted operations of aircrafts like the Dornier 228, Beech craft B200, Pilatus PC-12 and ATR42-500 as per Airport Reference Code 2B for all three airports. The proposed project will also include institutional strengthening and capacity building to support strategic management of the aviation development while improving environmental management. The scope of works for improvement of the Gelephu airport including contractor details is provided in table 1. As of preparing this 2 report construction works for the first two item have been completed and construction works for the third item is still ongoing. Table1: Work items for Gelephu airport under ATCEP No. Work Item Name of Contractor Contract Award Contract date Completion Date 1 Construction of M/S Jamyang February 2013 December 2013 Perimeter fence Construction (Pkg I) M/S Yeshay T Denkar Construction (Pkg II) 2 Runway drainage M/S Penjor August 2013 March 2014 system; Flood Construction Pvt. Ltd protection structure 3 Construction of M/S Dee Gee September 2014 April 2015 Passenger Terminal Construction 6. Gelephu airport at Located at Bhur (Samteling) and Gelephu Geogs in Sarpang district in southern Bhutan. It is located about 3 km from Gelephu and 30 km from Sarpang district head quarter. The Indo Bhutan border is located within 1 km. Gelephu town is the closest market place, which is located near Indo-Bhutan boarder (Datghari of Assam state of India). The airport is some 270 km from Guwahati (State capital of Assam) and about 260 km from Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. 3 Figure 1: Location of the three Domestic Airports under the Project 4 III. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS 7. The Project is managed by a Project Engineer from Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC), RGOB. The Project Engineer also acts as the Environmental Focal Person on site on behalf of DCA. Project implementation support is provided to the DCA Project Engineer by the Construction Supervision Consultant (CSC) headed by a Team Leader (TL), an Environmental Specialist (ES) and Supervising Engineer. An EFP was appointed under M/S Penjor Construction Pvt. Ltd and M/S Dee Gee Construction. 8. The ES under CSC team conducts site visits to the project site on a periodic basis while the contractor’s engineers and CSC Supervising Engineer are responsible for the day to day implementation of safeguards. It has been made obligatory for the contractor to submit proposed and implemented EMP reports on a monthly basis along with construction work plan. Likewise the CSC compiles the work status of the entire project and produces quarterly progress reports which includes a section on implementation of the EMPs. 9. Further, construction activities are subjected to external monitoring by various parties such as Dzongkhag (district) Environment Officer, Dzongkhag Environmental Committee, Forest Official, Local Government Officials and national Environment Commission (NEC). The Dzongkhag Environment Officer who the focal person for environmental issues at Dzongkhag level, monitors the project on regular basis. IV. STATUS OF COMPLIANCE A. Compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the Environmental Clearance No. Compliance Requirement Status 1 Any modification of the proposal shall take No modification has taken place during place only with the prior approval of the NEC the reporting period 2 Construction complies with the National Construction is as per the mentioned Environmental Protection Act 2007, laws. The site is monitored by the Environmental Assessment Act 2000 and its Dzongkhag Environmental Officer as Regulation 2002, Waste Prevention and well as the site supervisor from the Management Act of Bhutan 2009 and its design consultant firm. Regulation 2012, and the Water Act 2011 3 Complies with the Environmental Standards 2010 4 Construction is carried out as per the projects Construction is as per the IEE submitted documents submitted for environmental and as per the Environmental Clearance
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