Govt votes GHC10 million to expand aerodromes in Ghana

Accra, Jan. 18, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday announced that Government had voted GHC10 million for the expansion of aerodromes in Kumasi and Sunyani.

He said the money would be used to expand the runways and other major expansion works, while extra funding being sought would be used for rehabilitation of the facilities.

Vice President Mahama announced these when he inaugurated an ultra-modern fire station, constructed by Ghana Airports Company Limited at the Airforce Base, in Accra.

The fire station, in addition to having the capacity to accommodate 10 multi-purpose and state-of –the –art fire tenders, has a foam shed, training school for rescue and fire fighters for airports, mines and other public and private organisations.

Vice President Mahama said Government was negotiating with the Brazilian Government to expand facilities at the Tamale aerodrome to international status and to serve as an alternative to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Accra.

The expansion, he said, would improve domestic flights and enable Government to fly Muslim pilgrims going on Hajj directly from Tamale in succeeding years instead of conveying them to Accra first.

Vice President Mahama said Government in collaboration with the private sector and through public-private partnerships would ensure that the aerodromes at other Regions were upgraded to provide efficient and effective alternative means of air transport.

He announced that Government would subsequently relocate the Takoradi aerodrome to new location to accommodate the increasing traffic due to the oil and gas industry.

Vice President Mahama toured ongoing projects at the airport including the taxi and runway expansion, sites for the construction of proposed airline house and transit hotel and airport business centre.

He inspected work on the new fuel farm being constructed at KIA. The farm is an aviation fuel storage facility with four tanks, each capable of holding about 2.5million litres plus an extra tank for storing water.

The facility when completed would be able to store fuel for about a month instead of the current two-and-a-half days, which would be useful especially with flights from Lagos refueling in Accra due to the situation in that country.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of March 2012.