IADC acquires all land required for Argyle airport

All of the land needed for the construction of the international airport at Argyle is now owned by the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

This was disclosed by Chairman of the International Airport Development Company (IADC), Dr Rudy Matthias, on Sunday.

Matthias, who was a guest on an interactive radio show hosted by Hitz FM, said the land includes the thirty extra acres which were recently deemed necessary for the project over the long term.

In April this year, when the IADC disclosed that the extra land would be needed, the announcement was greeted with skepticism by some, with critics of the project accusing the IADC of designing the airport without allocating land for the terminal building.

But as Matthias explained on Sunday, the first design of the airport done by Cuban experts was meant to build an airport that would meet the needs of the country for the next ten to 20 years. “But then we started working on the Master Plan, which is to take a long term view of the development of the Argyle airport over the next 30, 40, 50 years.”

The IADC Chairman said as work started on the Master plan, they realized that the airport is likely to grow. “So, shouldn’t we start planning now for this growth which is likely to take place…?”

Matthias said that the extra land is needed to “allow those facilities which will be located on them to grow over time. He explained: “We must create some space between the terminal building and the cargo building because it was felt that over time, we will want to increase the size of the terminal building.”

“The acquisition notices have been (published) in the Government Gazette, which means that all the lands which we need for the runway and the apron, for the taxiway, for the terminal building, cargo, parking area and all the landside facilities; all of those lands, including the thirty acres, are now owned by the Government. We will be paying for that land over the next six, seven months or so,” Matthias said.

To date, the Government has paid out EC$48,128,353 in compensation to owners of 117 built properties and EC$19,093,397 for vacant land which falls within the first kilometer of the airport. Additionally, Matthias said the IADC has recently started paying for vacant lands within the second kilometer. So far, they have paid EC$2,142,903.

The cost of constructing the airport is estimated at EC$589 million. The facility will sit on 405 acres of land and will have a paved runway which will be 9,000 feet in length and 500 feet wide.

Design work on the terminal building is expected to start in a month’s time, with construction estimated to begin in April 2010. The contract for the design of the terminal building has just been awarded to a Taiwanese firm, CDCI Consultants, Dr. Matthias said.

Construction of the terminal building and other landside facilities will be funded by the government of Taiwan, to the tune of US$30 million. Of this, US$20 million will be a grant, with the balance being a soft loan.

The airport is estimated to be completed by March 2012.