Asaba Airport Will Be Completed In July, Says Okowa

Channels Television
Updated March 3, 2018

The Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said that the Asaba International Airport will be ready in July.

Speaking during an inspection visit to the airport, the governor expressed satisfaction that the contractor handling the reconstruction of the runway, had proven that the project could be delivered within three months

He assured that work will be completed on schedule according to specifications.

“After the voluntary withdrawal of the old contractor from the project a new contractor has now taken over and in less than a month, a lot has been achieved in terms of ongoing repairs and construction works at the runway, construction of stormwater drainage to control flooding and erosion as well as the construction of crash routes.

“It took two years for us to construct 900 metres of the runway but, it gladdens my heart that in just three weeks, the 1.1 kilometres of the runway has been done.”

“From the work programme, it may be possible for the company handling the project to complete it in three and half months, the speed with which they mobilized to the site is wonderful, we thank god for intervening which made us to re-award the contract.

“We are confident that in another four months, there will be a lot of bigger planes landing here.”

The Federal Government had downgraded the airport in 2016 following the failure of the Delta state government to comply with safety measures including issues of ditches on the airport’s runway, lack of the required strip, perimeter fencing, drainage, and lack of adequately trained technical personnel, with this downgrade, flight operations were limited to only dash 8-q 400 aircraft.