Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill (second left), and Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), Dennis Morrison (centre) are assisted by Airport Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) lawyer, Lisa-Kaye Henry, while other signatories: MBJ Airport's chief executive officer Jorge Sales (left), president of Airport Authority of Jamaica, Earl Richards, and International Financing Corporation (IFC) representative Tom Butler await their turn. The occasion was the signing of a $US40 million dollar loan to fund Sangster International expansion project. - CLAUDINE HOUSEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WESTERN BUREAU:
A MODERN customs hall is to be built at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, and the runway rehabilitated in the final phase of the US$160 million expansion project being undertaken by MBJ Airports Limited.
Speaking at the signing of a US$40 million loan agreement between the management of MBJ Airports and the International Financing Corporation (IFC) to complete the project, the Minister of Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, disclosed that US$2 million has already been earmarked for rehabilitating of the runway.
"The loan aspect of the expansion is US$40 million (J$2.5 billion) and the overall cost is some US$70 million (J$4.3 billion)" the minister said. "It will also involve the rehabilitation of the runway by the IFC that will cost about $US2 million."
EXPANSION PROJECT
Noting that the second phase two of the expansion project will start in mid-January and last some 30 months, to finish by mid-2008, Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), Dennis Morrison, said that although renovations will not be complete by Cricket World Cup in 2007, it would be time and money well spent.
"It will mean the upgrading of the customs hall, immigration facilities as well as the checking and shopping areas," Mr. Morrison said. "By the middle of 2006 the customs hall should be complete. This is very critical because if you have travelled you would see that we are actually at capacity right now.
"We are going to knock out some walls, expand to the west, upgrade some of the gates and convert them into what you see in the Eastern Concourse where you have a lounge beside the boarding gates," he said.
MBJ Airports Limited assumed responsibility for the management, operation and development of Sangster International Airport in April 2003, and has committed to a five-year capital expansion programme, which is scheduled for completion in mid-2008. The company officially opened its spacious Eastern Concourse last week.
