The Southern Highlands Province's Mendi Airport Redevelopment scheme has been placed on hold.
The redevelopment of the airport, which was scheduled to be completed in October this year, has been placed on hold, according to NAC acting managing director Rex Kiponge, due to the contractor not having the right materials for the runway and a disagreement among the landowners in Mendi.
According to Kiponge, he visited the project site last week to do an inspection, and NAC discovered that the materials used to build the airport's runway were not the correct materials because the contractors struggled on their end, so the contractors were advised to re-do the runway.
“I have to admit, we faced a lot of issues not only in Mendi Airport redevelopment but through all the airports under the CADIP Program. The contractors will redo the airport runway and the work on the terminal has not started as yet,” he said.
According to Kiponge, there have been several landowner disputes that the provincial government is responsible for resolving.
He said that he is eager to resolve the issues and complete the project under CADIP before the Asian Development Bank's deadline of November 24, 2021.
The Mendi Airport Redevelopment project includes upgrading the current runway pavement to accommodate Dash 8-400 (Q400) and ATR 0-70 aircraft, as well as the construction of a new terminal building and other developments such as NAC Staff quarters, a tractor shed, an engineer site office, and a powerhouse.
CADIP 1 is a sub-project funded by the Asian Development Bank's multi-tranche funding facility loans, and the ADB needs to see proper progress on all project sites completed during the availability timeframe before moving on to CADIP 2, which is scheduled for 2022-2024.
