Afro-Tsion Construction Plc, a grade one general contractor, will construct Ethiopia’s 18th airport at Jinka, 587kms south of Addis Abeba. This is after a recent handing over of the land, located three kilometres away from Jinka town to the contractor.
Afro-Tsion was awarded the US$29m (571.7 million Br) contract in late May 2014 by the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE). The Ethiopian Airports Enterprise is also looking to construct new airports in Hawassa and Robe. EAE says it selected Jinka for the construction of the airport due to the economic growth of the city and high tourist flow towards the region.
The Transport Construction Design Enterprise (TCDE), a fully fledged state owned consulting firm, which deals mainly in the design and construction supervision of roads, bridges and airports is the consultant for the construction of the Airport.
“The construction will only include the landing part of airport, which will be finalised within two and half years,” said Wondeme Teklu, head of the communication affairs office at the Enterprise. “The passenger terminal is under design and will be ready for construction next year.”
According to Wondeme, the airport will lie on a three million square metre plot of land and the landing area will be 2.5kms in length and 60ms in width. It is designed to serve the Boeing 737 model of airplane.
Currently, EAE administers 17 airports all over the country; three of these are gravelled airports – Semera, Pawe and Robe Goba. Among the total airports, four of them are international – Addis Abeba Bole, Dire Dawa, Bahir Dar and Mekelle Alula Aba Nega.
Afro Tsion was established in 1990 and is engaged in road and bridge construction, infrastructure and real estate development and water works. The contractor has previously worked on the construction of numerous projects, such as Mekele University, Oromia Regional Offices, Gondar University, Assela Malt Factory, Jimma University, Awash International Bank Project (Adama Branch Office Building), water works at Gewanie and Awash Arba water supply projects.
The TCDE was established in August 1987. Before this, the TCDE had been a division under the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) for about 30 years, serving as a consultant.
