It‘s a race against time for the completion of Kabalega International Airport in Kabaale, Hoima.

Now, Amos Muriisa, the Spokesperson of SBC Uganda Ltd, the company undertaking the construction works at the airport, has said that aircraft heading to and leaving Kabalega International Airport will, in the meantime, be monitored from the Control Tower at Entebbe International Airport.

This is as the government races against time to have Uganda’s second international airport, now under construction, ready for use by November 2023.

Amos Muriisa, the Spokesperson of SBC Uganda Ltd, the company undertaking the construction of Kabalega International Airport, says that the government has not yet secured funds to set up a Control Tower at the airport in Hoima District.

Once complete, Uganda’s second International airport will have a runway of 3,500m in length, 45m in width with shoulders of 15m on each side. It will also have a platform of 75,000 m2 enabled to receive 4 Antonov 124 or Boeing 747-8 aircraft.

Kabalega International Airport will also have a cargo terminal, Airport Rescue and Firefighting Building, an accommodation block with 30 double two-bedroom houses and 6 single three-bedroom houses, a Fuel farm, and Mobile Air Traffic Control Tower, among others.

Muriisa says that the construction works which currently stand at 91% are only lacking a few components to complete the 1st phase of the project.

When the first phase is complete, huge cargo planes will be able to land with heavy equipment, materials, and machinery imported by the oil and gas companies which are currently in the initial stages of developing and undertaking huge oil projects ahead of the start of the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

The projects include; field flow pipelines, feeder pipelines, the Central Processing Facilities in the fields and at the Kabaale Industrial Park, the EACOP, and later the refinery. It also includes well equipment for related industries, such as plastic industries, expected to be born out of the oil industry.

The first phase of construction at the Airport began in 2018 and was due to end in April 2022, to handle huge cargo planes.

However, the COVID-19 lockdowns slowed down the works, but other technical issues also later emerged, including the terrain and others that had not been anticipated during the contract awarding process, according to SBC Ltd, the contractor.

But Muriisa says the project will be complete by September or October 2023, the new deadline that was set by the government through the Petroleum Authority of Uganda.