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Chinese Company Agrees To Complete Additional Work At Guyana Airport By Next Year’s End; Will Foot $1.8B Cost

Passengers line-up at the immigration terminals in the arrivals' lounge, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. Photo credit: DPI.

Chinese Company Agrees To Complete Additional Work At Guyana Airport By Next Year’s End; Will Foot $1.8B Cost

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Wednesday, December 23, 2020) — The China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has agreed to undertake additional work on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, to the tune of $1.8 billion — at no additional cost to the Guyana government.

The Ministry of Public Works announced, in a statement, that the government and CHEC entered into an agreement, yesterday. The deadline for the work to be completed is December 31, 2021.

The agreement entails:

  1. An extension of the airport’s boarding corridor, in order to accommodate two more passenger boarding bridges, providing the airport with a total of six boarding bridges, capable of servicing aircraft, such as the Boeing 777, Dreamliner, the AirBus and similar trans-Atlantic aircraft.
  2. The terminal building being extended to provide accommodation for additional commercial space, such as food courts and duty-free shops. The extended building will feature a modern airport facade, covering the full length of the departure terminal.
  3. CHEC further agreed to rectify and complete all outstanding remedial works, within prescribed timelines.

President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, had said he was “disappointed” with the current scope of works at the airport, and shared these views with Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jianchun, and representatives of CHEC, after inspecting the project in September.

He explained at the time that the government would only accept the work, outlined in the original contract for the expansion of the airport.

“Our intention is to get what was signed for. What was in the contract, that is what is our intention. The airport that was in the contract, that is the airport that has to be delivered to the government and the people of Guyana,” the President had said.

The airport expansion contract was signed in 2013 to the value of $30 billion (US$150 million). The deadline for the project was 2015, but the company was given an extension to complete the project, which expired in 2018.

The project remains incomplete in 2020, even after an additional extension was granted.

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