Construction of new International Airport is not negotiable - Samia

Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah has called on President John Evans Atta Mills to fulfill his campaign pledge to the Ghanaian people by cutting the sod for a construction of Ghana’s new international airport at Cape Coast, Kumasi or Tamale.

Speaking to this writer in Accra recently, Samia said an airport is the first place of a country from where visiting tourists start forming an impression of the country. She said although Ghana Airports Authority is doing a very brilliant job under very difficult circumstances, KIA is far from what modern airports around the world are.

She said, first the flow of tourists and returning African Americans of Ghanaian heritage is not going to remain static. Arrivals of these nationals and tourists are bound to go up as the country becomes more affluent. She said a as result of our historic past, plus the stability of the country and growing economy, more blacks of Ghanaian heritage are relocating from elsewhere to the homeland, which in turn attracts more tourists and inflow of investments, thus it is imperative to revisit late President Nkrumah’s master plan for construction of a new airport.

Samia said, “Kotoka International Airport gives the impression to any visiting tourist that it is stuck in a time wrap”. She said in the next couple of years, KIA will not be able to handle the increased number of flights considering that it is located almost in the middle of the capital city and the room for expansion is very limited indeed. She said, thus it makes perfect sense to start working towards building a new airport that is at a convenient distance from Accra.

She said construction of a new airport will place Ghana in a win-win situation, which will allow the government to upgrade Kotoka International Airport, and thus KIA will continue to remain a vital linkage between Ghana and the rest of the world.

She explained that the creation of a major new international airport is a massive infrastructural effort which requires access roads, connections to the city centre and intercity connections to the regions. She said the new airport will be a global hub, will be able to accommodate Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 Dreamliner and any future mega planes. She said the airport must combine natural beauty showing the very best of Ghana.

She said this comes with added bonus of having state of the art rail connectivity to the rest of the country instead of relying on road transport. She said this will give Ghana Railways Company the opportunity to expand local rail corridors over the entire Ghana railroad infrastructure, from Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region to Tamale in the Northern Region.

Once the airport is built, Ghana will need faster connectivity for both passengers and goods and extending the existing network would be much faster than building completely new modes of transit like the Metro. Samia said investment in Ghana Railway Company would yield huge benefits to the country and any investor.