The minister seated in front of Ya Naa Abukari II, Overlord of Dagbon in Yendi
GOVERNMENT IS considering a further upgrade of the Tamale Airport to full international status even though the $80 million phase II project is yet to be completed, Minister for Transport & Aviation, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has said.
The phase III, which will complement what has already been done to put the airport to its full status as international airport, will soon commence along with the yet to be completed phase II which currently has an overall progress rating of 57%.
The target is to make the Tamale Airport to reach its full status as an international airport to further boost economic potential of Tamale as the bread basket of the country.
It will involve expanding the main multipurpose terminal (approximately 5,508 square-metres), which is under construction, and some other facilities. The additional cost is immediately not known.
However, the minister said the technical experts from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the Ghana Airports Company Limited were working hand in hand with the contractors, QGMI, a Brazilian construction firm and the project consultant, Ecobuild Consult, to determine the cost.
Government, he noted, would immediately look for funds to finance it, believing that it was economically viable and profitable for phase II and III of the project to be done simultaneously.
“Per the advice from the project consultant in terms of cost effectiveness, it will be better to have the phase III. We believe that we can combine both phases as we have done for Kumasi Airport. It will be viable; it will be profitable; and they will less cost for us. I believe that we will be able to meet the demands that the engineers and consultants are asking us so that we can achieve the purpose that we set for ourselves to do,” he noted.
He added, “We will reap the full economic benefits if we do the phase III. That is why we are proposing that we do it now instead of waiting for it to be done in future. We may not incur huge cost but if we are to wait for phase II to be completed, it means then in bringing on phase III, we need to touch some of the items.”
Mr. Asiamah made these observations when he paid a working visit to Tamale in the Northern Region on Friday.
Among the facilities inspected were the project design, which is 80% completed; the main terminal, 57% completed; a multipurpose building, 61% completed; bulk utility, 41% completed; and the access road and car park, which is 38% completed.
The bulk utility comprises of an underground firefighting reservoir, a portable water tank and a wastewater treatment system.
Regional Airport Manager, Tamale, Michael Omari, said he was hopeful the project would be completed on schedule following which his outfit would embark on aggressive marketing to get all neighbouring countries to patronize the facility.
Started in August 2019, the Tamale Airport phase II project being built on a 3,500 acres of land, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, the schedule time which could be extended to the end of 2022 once phase III of the project is incorporated into it.
About 150,000 passengers patronize the Tamale Airport annually.
A business desk report