President, Ministers tour CJIA

President David Granger and Ministers of the Cabinet on Saturday, January 27, 2018 visited the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at the invitation of Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson to have a firsthand look at the progress being made in the modernisation of the facility.

At the Public Infrastructure ministry’s 2017 yearend press conference, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CJIA, Ramesh Ghir said the airport expansion project will now be fully completed in December 2018 – though certain aspects of the initiative will be completed earlier in the year.

He disclosed that the extension of the north-east runway should be completed by July 2018 and the first 500 metres of the south-east runway by April 2018.

The taxiways are earmarked for completion in March 2018, the new arrival terminal by June 2018 and the existing terminal building by December 2018.

Ghir explained that the new buildings should be constructed by midyear while renovation and rehabilitation works may run until yearend.

In 2012, the Guyana Government had secured a US$138 million loan from the China Exim (Export-Import) Bank to fund the expansion and modernisation project, for which the Guyanese Government has injected some US$12 million. The project began in 2013 and was scheduled to be completed within 32 months. However, the deadline was extended several times owing to some hiccups in the execution of the initiative.