CJIA renovation adds another $122M for parking lot

May 15, 2019 News

Four key facilities were omitted from the original US$150M design for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) by the Jagdeo-led People’s

The current parking lot

Progressive Party (PPP) in 2011.
One of those, the parking lot, is estimated by an engineer attached to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to cost Guyana $122,166,075.
During yesterday’s opening of bids at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, 10 contractors cast bids. The highest of those is from S&K Construction, Consulting Services & General Supplies ($178,742,600), while the lowest came from XL Engineering ($72,765,650).

Apart from that, there is an office area for airlines, a cargo facility and a commercial centre awaiting bids. They are yet to be priced.

Last week, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, accepted some of the blame for the omission of those key airport facilities, claiming that the idea was to give local contractors the opportunity to benefit.

He said, however, that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) isn’t to blame at this point for what it left out of the plan, when the government didn’t even achieve the construction of the facilities that were on the plan.

The plan that was passed from the PPP to the Coalition Government in 2015 included a brand new terminal and eight air bridges, among other things.

The Coalition Government claimed an assessment found that seven percent of the project was completed, and that there were claims for US$90M, when it took office in 2015.

It claimed it found major problems and that major changes needed to be made.

Instead of a brand new terminal building for the Arrivals and Departures along with a longer runway, there was renovation of the old terminal buildings and a smaller structure for the Arrivals.

The number of passenger bridges has been reduced from eight to four and the fancy, energy–saving glass roof that CHEC promised is now zinc sheets.

Both the Opposition and the current government have given less than forthcoming explanations about the parts they played in the botching of this project, and have resorted to blaming each other for various aspects of it. Contractors have come forward saying that what the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company, did could have been done for US$5M.

How US$150M was spent on this project, is yet to be justified. Both designs, original and modified, are yet to see the light of day. And Jagdeo has said that it’s doubtful Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, would ever release them.

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