Airport opening pushed to end of July – PM

Several factors have played a role in the delay in the opening of the Argyle International Airport (AIA), which is now scheduled to be operational by the end of July.

So said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Tuesday, while calling in to the OMG morning show on Boom 106.9 FM.{{more}}

“There are three specific sets of problems which we had. Over the last three years we had…50 odd, 60 days of …no work outside because of rain,” Gonsalves explained.

He also said slow disbursement of money from the sale of land in Canouan and the ALBA Bank also held up the work.

The third reason for the delay, according to the Prime Minister, is work that had to be done on Petroglyph Hill, an area which was discovered to contain rock carvings from pre-historic visitors to the country.

“There was some solid rock there; you know there was a mountain and you couldn’t do any blasting, you couldn’t do anything by the road or anything there… because the blasting would also have upset that,” Gonsalves explained.

The Prime Minister said some persons told him he should not let the petroglyphs hold up the airport; however, he is of the view that our history and archaeology are important and there is no plan to put the petroglyphs in the dust.(CM)