Airport expansion works to be completed in 2024

The refurbishment of Uganda’s solitary international airport in Entebbe will be fully completed in 2024, the China Communications and Construction Company (CCCC) has revealed.

The ongoing upgrade and expansion of Entebbe International Airport includes the revamp of its runways, construction of new passenger terminals, and a new cargo centre.

Taken together, the renovations are expected to increase passenger traffic and the amount of freight at the airport.

With its revamp process split into two phases, the project, which commenced in May 2016, was meant to be completed this year.

However, the government, through the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), has since agreed to extend the contract to 2024 to tie up all loose ends.

The project is funded through a $200m (about Shs707b) loan sourced from the Export and Import (EXIM) Bank of China.

The contractor attributed the failure to beat the earlier deadline to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects.

Mr Li Qinpu, the CCCC project manager, said he is nevertheless confident that the new deadline will be met.

“The [Covid-19-induced] lockdowns everywhere made us fail to import other materials that were supposed to come from countries such as Poland,” Mr Qinpu said.

This affirms what the UCAA top officials told lawmakers on the Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) on Tuesday.

The UCAA director for navigation, Mr Ayub Soma, told the committee that the changes at the airport were informed by an inspection and validation exercise conducted by officials from the European Union (EU) some time back.

The EU recommended that the contractor ensures safety measures at the airport are scaled up to ease of access and exit from the facility.

“The changes included the modification of processes and infrastructure to fit the EU market,” he said.

Works and Transport minister, Gen Katumba Wamala, also intimated to MPs that the changes have to be effected so that the country taps into the lucrative European market.

Meanwhile, Mr Li revealed that the runways and the cargo centre facilities are ready for handover to the UCAA.

“We worked on the runways during the Covid-19 lockdown when there was no serious traffic at the airport, and we have handed these over to the employer. The new cargo centre has been completed and will soon be ready for handover to the employer after fitting in some equipment,” Mr Li said.

Additionally, CCCC has also placed emphasis on promotion of local content by purchasing local materials and training local staff employed by the contractor.

The CCCC country director, Mr Joseph Biao, said this is in tandem with the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) policy.

“We have an arrangement with the Chinese engineers to teach the Ugandan staff so that they can acquire the knowledge that they will use after his project is done,” Mr Zheng told Saturday Monitor.

Mr John Paul Bagota, one of the beneficiaries of the onsite training, told Daily Monitor on Wednesday that he is “now acquainted with how to install equipment that fits the current international standards.”

He said: “I now know how to install ventilations used for cooling cargo, which is a key innovation in the new cargo centre.”