KAA acting Managing Director Yatich Kangugo says the authority has already started seeking for a design consultant which will be followed by securing a contractor/MARGARET WAHITO
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13- The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) says the remodelling of Terminal 1B, C and Terminal 1D at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is expected to kick off in March next year.
KAA acting Managing Director Yatich Kangugo says the authority has already started seeking for a design consultant which will be followed by securing a contractor.
Kangugo says the renovation is not only seeking to add modern facilities into the Terminals, but also expand it to handle more passengers.
“The remodelling process actually has begun. As we speak we are procuring the services of a consultant to do detailed design. We expect that to take between six to nine months,” Kangugo said, “then there after we start the process of procuring a contractor. So we are seeing by March next year, we should be doing the remodelling.”
After the completion of the remodelling, JKIA is expected to handle at least 12 million passengers from the current 7.5million annually.
The financing of the project is expected approximately Sh16 billion and which largely being funded by the World Bank.
Kangugo was speaking during a media tour on Friday of the just finished Terminal 1A which hosts Kenya Airways (KQ) and all Sky Team airline members, as well as a visit to the new Terminal 1E which is meant for arrivals for all other airlines.
The new Terminal 1A sits on a total floor area of 37,000 square meters and comes with 30 check-in counters and 12 departure gates. T1A’s arrival function has five baggage reclaim carrousels with a minimum capacity of 640 bags per belts per hour and a total of 550 seating positions.
“It is designed for 1,550 departing and 1,125 arriving peak hour passengers, with transfer functionality. The new state of the art terminal, which has an annual capacity of 2.5 million passengers, is dedicated to serving Sky Team Alliance,” the KAA boss said.
On the other hand, is built on a 6,200 square metres and located opposite the airport’s parking garage. It was occasioned as a result of the fire of August 2013 that gutted down the then existing centralized arrivals building. The terminal
KAA boss says the terminal is already operational adding that the opposite garage which was temporarily used for arrivals will be renovated once again to continuing serving its previous purpose.
