Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Merga Yonas
10 August 2009
The Ethiopian Airports Enterprise has prepared a bid document to hire contractors for the construction of a new airport in Kombolcha town, 376Km north of Addis Abeba, in southern Wollo Zone of Amhara Regional State.
The Enterprise has budgeted 60 million Br for the project, which it expects to be completed in January 2010. The new airport will lie on 283hct and will be paved with gravel similar to the previous one. It will handle only passenger flights until further upgrades are made in order to handle cargo flights, according to Ayele Yirgu.
The airport at Kombolcha is one of the two new projects the Enterprise is planning to undertake in the Ethiopian fiscal year 2002. The budget for Kombolcha has been approved, while Jinka was not included in the budget. There are two other airports at Humera and Assosa, whose construction begun last year. They are scheduled to be fully completed in thus fiscal year, while the airport in Jimma is planned for completion the following year.
Ayele said that the Enterprise will also build a new control tower, terminal and staff offices.
The old airport has a 100m wide, one kilometre long runway whereas the new runway will be four kilometres long and 300m wide. It will be able to accommodate the Q400 and Foker 50 aircraft which carry 12 passengers. The country has 15 airports of same kind, including the new one to be constructed in Kombolcha, Ayele explained.
The Enterprise supervises the construction of the airport; the state-owned Transport Constructions Design S.C. is the designer and consultant. TCDSc is involved in similar capacity in the construction of all airports in Ethiopia.
Residents who are now occupying the new airport site are yet to be relocated by the Amhara Land Administration Bureau, according to a source in the bureau. Compensations and alternative farm lands will be offered to the residents, the source said.
Kombolcha town is one of the most important industry areas in the region. It is home to Kombolcha Steel Products and Metal Working Company, a MIDROC group company, and Kombolcha Textile Industry.
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