An amount of US$40 million is needed to revamp the runway of Ghana’s maiden airport, Kotoka International Airport, the Aviation Minister discloses.
Mr Joseph Kofi Adda who made the disclosure on the sideline of a press briefing in Accra last Thursday, July 9, 2020 said the amount his outfit is seeking is expected to advance the safety of the runway.
Additionally, the runway of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has not seen a face-lift in some 30 years hence the revamp works were required.
“The runway has to be redone. It has been thirty years and nothing has been done. They need to redo it. The last time I heard they did some work to get the tar out of it, there was a huge stuck of that. It needs to be redone. Now we need about US$40 million to do the work.
With this debt now, they cannot even do that. Is it something we can push the new company to do? We are not sure. There are a whole lot of options we can look at,” Mr. Adda said.
Meanwhile some staff and worker union groups of the Ghana Aiport Company Limited (GACL) last week demonstrated due to ‘allegations on the sale and privatization of the KIA’ to a proposed strategic partnership with a Turkish firm with diversified interests.
The Minister on his part announced that the GACL was debt-ridden adding the proposed strategic partnership with the Turkish firm government was in talks with, could be an option for the revamp works of the KIA runaway as it requires an abrupt face-lift to enhance safety at the airport.
Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee in Parliament reacting to the proposed strategic partnership said the move was not in the best interest of Ghana.
According to Kwame Governs Agbodza, Ghana’s airport does not need a strategic partner when it can make available its own resources to run airport operations.
“Ho is completed but not in use. Kumasi is under construction. We have taken a loan already. Tamale is under construction. Wa has been completed. Kotoka itself is over capacitated. I’m saying that Terminal Three will take 5 to 7 years to reach its full capacity. Terminal Two recently got upgraded and is not even in use,” Mr Agbodza said.
“So I don’t think at this stage of Ghana’s life we needed a strategic investor to manage an airport when we can find our own money to build it. We don’t need anybody to manage it for us. So whoever doing the negotiations, we are told there is no agreement yet so whoever is in this strategic discussion should please watch what you are doing because it is not in the interest of Ghana,” he lamented.
Source:ghgossip.com
