Hoskins Airport set for major changes

 WEST New Britain is about to witness the extension of the Hoskins Airport runway and upgrading of its terminal. 

Civil Aviation Minister Davies Steven took part part in the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday to mark the start of the project.

Governor Sasindran Muthuvel expressed his gratitude to the Government for recognising the province and choosing Hoskins Airport in the first batch of the National Airport Corporation projects apart from Mt Hagen.

He also acknowledged his predecessor Peter Humphreys for laying the foundation for the project and thanked the Asian Development Bank for providing the funds.

The K80 million project is scheduled to be completed by 2015 and Muthuvel gave an undertaking that his government would work with the developer, Covec, to ensure the project was completed on time.

The governor told landowners to consider starting spinoff businesses and appealed to the Government and the contractor to give priority to the local people in such activities.

Kandrian Gloucester MP Joseph Lelang also urged the local people to take ownership of the project.

National Airports Corporation managing director Joseph Kintau said Hoskins Airport had been downgraded for the past seven years due to safety reasons.

He revealed the Hoskins project was NAC’s biggest project and aimed to extend the runway, upgrade the terminal so that the airport was capable of holding three  Folker 100 aircraft at any one time.

He added that Hoskins was chosen because of the increase in economic activities in the province.