Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
US$150M and counting at CJIA… Airport will get only four of promised 8 passenger bridges
In 2011, the then administration signed a fixed price contract for US$150M, with Chinese contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), for a brand new airport.
The expansion would have seen a new terminal building and a longer runway to accommodate the wide-body planes.
The two-storey terminal building to house the arrival and departure areas would have boasted eight sets of passenger boarding bridges.
However, when the airport is handed over in a few weeks time, by this year-end, there will only be four bridges.
Two were installed months ago and two came in the country last week.
An artist impression, as contained in the contract with CHEC, of what Guyana was supposed to get.
According to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure on Wednesday, December 5, in a Facebook post, the “final two” bridges have arrived at the airport.
The Ministry said that installation will commence in the third week of December.
The second pair will be installed alongside the two already in use.
According to Carmichael Thorne, the Project Manager, one of the bridges will be placed between the two already installed while the other will be located in the northern most end of the terminal.
The bridges are an enclosed, separate structure used to transport passengers to and from planes.
Many countries have them now. It protects them from the elements also.
The reduction in the number of boarding bridges would be but an indication of how much modification was done to the airport project.
Instead of a brand new terminal building to facilitate more check-in booths, eight passenger bridges, more duty free shopping and the arrival and departure areas, a decision was taken to reduce the project drastically.
The old terminal building instead of being torn down or used for other purposes, is being gutted and renovated.
Government has not explained how much of an impact the modifications would have on the price.
Guyana was never told about the modifications, officially.
Minister David Patterson
Critics have pointed out that under a fixed price contract, the scope of works cannot be drastically reduced as is evident in this case.
Government has remained silent in face of the growing criticisms.
It will be recalled that the justifications for a large terminal building was to address the space constraints in the terminal, which saw few booths at the departure area.
The arrival area in the old terminal was also too small, with limited space for immigration.
There are several worrying things about this contract, which is now being pursued by the Coalition Government, under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
For example, there are indications of hugely inflated prices, the US$150M project would have been outfitted with some 36 of the 46-inch screen monitors for the Flight Information Display System.
CHEC in the project claimed that each would cost US$6,548.90 ($1,310,000). Some US$235,760.40 ($47,152,080) would have set aside for those 36 of the 46-inch TVs.
The problem with the prices is that back in 2011 when the contract was signed a 47-inch television was selling for between $200,000-$300,000 each.
The airport also needed six of the “large scale display screen (LCD)4*82”. Each was a whopping US$65,493.30 ($13.1M).
That cost for those 82-inches were US$392,959.80 ($80M).
The new building should have boasted energy-efficient solutions including a glass roof and skylights worth $1.1B but there is no evidence of that. Rather the roof is of ordinary roof sheets.
Ongoing renovations at the CJIA’s old terminal a few weeks ago.
The project involves a Chinese contractor and now spans three administrations and is largely shrouded in secrecy.
What is known is that the contract was halted in 2015 when the Coalition Government came to office. The contractor was allowed to restart work.
However, what Guyana is now getting is not what is reflected in the contract.
Guyana has taken a loan of US$138M from China with the additional US$12M to come in counterpart financing from the Government.
The Opposition, too, has been silent on a contract, which it signed secretly with CHEC in Jamaica.
Kaieteur News had reached out to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, which is charged with the airport, but a promised tour never materialized.
The CJIA project, after ExxonMobil and its oil well, is currently the largest ongoing project in the country, at the moment.
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