With a June month-end deadline fast approaching, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill yesterday said that construction works on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) are on schedule.
“There will be no extension, we are on schedule. China Harbour will complete its contractual obligation with the government of Guyana based on the addendum made to the contract when we came into office to put in place the superstructure, the curtain wall and the two corridors for additional size aircraft. All of that is on schedule,” Edghill yesterday said on the sidelines of a press briefing at his ministry. He added that work on the superstructure has been completed and currently a local contractor is engaged in retrofitting the area for concessionaires. The superstructure will house approximately 20 concessionary stands.
The minister stated that the retrofitting of the building was not part of the China Harbour and Engineering Corporation contract. “We have moved from a warehouse to an airport,” Edghill said. The airport expansion project has been in play since 2013 and missed many deadlines under three governments. While some US$9 million was budgeted for the extended project, the cost has now moved to approximately US$15 million. The entire sum he was quick to clarify, will be covered by CHEC. This newspaper understands that the global hike in prices for material due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shipping crisis was primarily responsible for the increased cost. Back in December last year, the airport was in the testing phase after all major works were completed.
Immediately upon taking office, President Irfaan Ali in September, 2020 conducted a familiarisation tour of the project and expressed his dissatisfaction at the state of the project. He told CHEC that they were responsible for the failure to deliver a project of high quality and not being able to complete it in a timely fashion. By December 2020, the PPP/C government and CHEC announced that they had reached an agreement on the additional works for the expansion project. After being written to by Attorney General Anil Nandlall a year ago informing that government would not accept shoddy work or less than what it had originally agreed for, the two sides came to an agreement and CHEC said that it would stand the costs to complete those works.
The deal appeared to be a significant win for the government, which had warned of legal action against CHEC if the defects highlighted were not remedied by December 31, 2020. Some 71 critical issues were listed as affecting the airport’s functionality and were made known to the company in order that they be addressed. Both sides agreed that CHEC would be given up to March 31, 2021 to complete those works.
