Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rwanda: Works on Bugesera airport on course

BY JAMES KARUHANGA
The New Times
January 14, 2010

Photo:
The Artistic impression of the soon to be under construction Bugesera International Airport.

The preliminary design works on Bugesera International Airport are almost complete paving way for the construction to commence.


The Minister of Infrastructure, Vincent Karega, told The New Times that the design phase is on course and the process of mobilising investors is on-going.

“The design study is at 90 percent now. It will be promoted to investors for implementation following a business model to be designed soon by the project management team,” Karega noted.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, announced that a British engineering company, TPS Consult, was working on detailed designs for the project and that the airport would be constructed through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

TPS Consult is internationally acclaimed and has worked on designs of international airports such as Madrid, London Heathrow and Durban.

The Ministry estimates that when complete, the new airport will handle 450 passengers per hour to serve a projected figure of 1 million passengers per year, in the first phase that runs up to 2025.

Subsequent phases will follow with higher passenger and cargo capacities.

The country has recently experienced a drastic increase in air traffic due to tourism and increased economic activity stretching the existing airport’s capacity.

Quoting media reports, due to its location near the centre of sub-Sahara Africa, Rwanda has also been selected to host a central CNS/ATM air control centre at Mount Karisimbi.

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 11:48 PM