An additional sum of $2.5 billion has been proposed for the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport (CJIA) Expansion Project, Minister of Finance Ashni Singh yesterday announced.
During his 2021 national budget presentation, Singh said the sum will be spent on the procurement of two additional passenger boarding bridges to accommodate large transatlantic aircraft, bringing the total to six boarding bridges at the airport. It will also be used to fund the rehabilitation of the airline and airport administration offices, and the outfitting of the commercial complex of the airport.
In December, the PPP/C government and the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) announced that they had reached an agreement on the CJIA expansion project, which is estimated to cost US$9 million, for additional works. In the agreement, it was disclosed that CHEC will stand the cost of the additional works.
The expanded works are to be completed by December 31st this year. The deal appeared to be a significant win for the government, which had warn-ed of legal action against CHEC if it didn’t remedy certain defects by Decem-ber 31st last year. President Irfaan Ali had also visited the US$150 million project in September last and had expressed dissatisfaction at the state of the project.
The Ministry of Public Works in a statement had said that the new work will involve: an extension of the Airport’s boarding corridor in order to accommodate two more passenger boarding bridges, equipping the Airport with a total of six boarding bridges capable of servicing aircraft such as the Boeing 777, Dreamliner, the AirBus and similar trans-Atlantic aircraft. The terminal building is being extended to provide accommodation for additional commercial space such as food courts and duty-free shops. The extended building will feature a modern airport façade covering the full length of the Departure Terminal.
There had been fruitless discussions between the two sides over the quantum of new work in the project and if it had been delivered by CHEC. Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill had argued that the PPP/C government had contracted in 2011 for a brand new building not a refurbished one.
CHEC has further agreed to rectify and complete all outstanding remedial works within prescribed timelines, the statement said.
The government’s records show a vast variation from the contract with less than half of the agreed 17,000 square metres covered under the original agreement completed, he said.
According to Edghill, the new building constructed by the company is 7,200 square metres. “They rehabilitated 6,800 square metres. Even if you add the two together, you still have 3,250 square metres [more to go]. And that is if you count the rehabilitated as new and it cannot be counted as new,” he stressed.
“Then recently, there were 72 items they were going to fix to make the airport functional, before December 31st [2020]. The 72 items ain’t fixed yet! Then you have an airport, when you approach it, you think it is a warehouse. The whole [exterior] façade in the front there you have to fix… That is supposed to be glass right up to the top,” the frustrated minister declared.
Edghill said that it would be dereliction for government to accept the current airport for the cost agreed to as at the end of the day taxpayers would hold the PPP/C government accountable.
The controversy-ridden project began in January 2013 after a secret deal in 2011 in Jamaica and has now straddled three governments including five years under the former APNU+AFC administration.
