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Hoima, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The completion of Kabalega International Airport, in Hoima district, has suffered delays, pushing the handover to February next year.
The contractor, a joint venture of Israeli-British firms, Shikun & Binui International-SBI/Colas Limited, had initially planned to officially hand over the airport to the government on December 26th.
Anurag Kalvagunta, the construction manager at SBC, explained in an interview with Uganda Radio Network that they have rescheduled the handover to February next year to allow for the completion of crucial remaining works, such as the construction of the control tower, power substation house, and other critical facilities at the airport.
He attributed the delays in the completion and handover of the airport to the government to the delayed release of additional funding by the government.
According to Kalvagunta, the construction works at the airport currently stand at 95 percent with the most crucial facilities including the construction of the runway, which is 3.5 kilometers long and 45 meters, the cargo terminal building, the limited-capacity passenger terminal building, the air rescue firefighting house and the air-ground lighting system among others all completed.
The airport is expected to play a crucial role as one of the key support infrastructures for the upcoming commercial oil production activities.
Construction started in April 2018 and was originally expected to be completed by June of this year but was pushed to October this year and again to December.
Kabalega International Airport, financed by Standard Chartered Bank with a budget of USD 309 million, will have the capacity to accommodate four cargo planes simultaneously.
It will have a fire station, apron, control tower, accommodation facilities, parallel runways, taxiway, air rescue firefighting house, power substation house, communications and navigation systems, perimeter fence, and air-ground illumination system, among other facilities.
In February, the contractor halted the construction works citing a lack of funding from the government. The contractor then halted the construction works at the airport following the government’s failure to allocate more 126 billion shillings to complete the remaining works.
This was after the contractor had severally engaged the government to allocate more funding to help them expedite the completion process of the airport in vain.
The contractor then said they could not continue working without resources despite several appeals to the government.
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