Kabul Vice Ministry of Transportation and Civil Air (MoTCA), engineer Mendy Seyedi, and the Governor of Herat, Dr. Daoud Saba attended the Herat Airport runway extension ceremony here Feb. 17.
The afghan authorities were welcomed by Regional Command West commander, Italian Brigadier General Marcello Bellacicco, and by Herat Forward Support Base commander, Spanish Colonel Jaime Martorell.
The runway extension was funded by NATO, with the aim to meet the military needs of ISAF, and while improving the capacity and the future of the Herat Civilian Airport.
“I think the extension of this airport makes it a true runway to receive any variety of airplanes. This means the people in western Afghanistan, including all four provinces, will have an opportunity to go to any destination in the world right from their province rather than to go to Kabul and from Kabul fly back and pass over Herat. Economically, it saves a lot of money and culturally it’s a milestone for making Herat one of the hubs of development in the country,” said Saba. “We hope that in the future Herat Airport will serve as a hub for cargo in Afghanistan for it’s access to southern, northern and central provinces of the country.”
The new runway is about 3000m long (2500 m x 45 m with a 500 m extension), enabling even the largest civilian aircraft to take off and land. The project was completed 4 months before the schedule time thanks to the NATO, supported by Spanish military personnel, in charge of the project monitoring, using the best quality material in order to extend it life condition.
Sayedi thanks NATO for the important runway; it is a good accomplishment for Afghanistan and particularly for Herat Province. He thanks also for cooperation of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The extension project included also the runway antireflection painting, standard ICAO lights, and security working material for the airport staff.
“On behalf of NAMSA and also the 28 nations, it’s our great honor to be able to provide these capabilities to the government of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan. This is a center and a hub for economic activity in Northern Afghanistan and it is critical they have this capability in the future so it’s our pleasure to support you on it said Dr. Robert Young Senior Representative NAMSA in Afghanistan.
“Thanks to the efforts of NATO today it is possible to inaugurate this new runway. It represents few meters more of pave way, but it improves our operational and logistic capability and is an important step to get Herat and the entire Region closer to the world,” said Bellacicco. “In the last period we join other important goals in order to improve the security and flight assistance of military and civilian flights, thanks to the effort of service members.” Starting from November 2010 it is possible to land here also during the night and with bad weather conditions thanks to navigational aids and implementation of Instrumental Flight Procedures (IFR).
“During 2010 Herat airport had 35.296 air movements and almost 700.000 passengers, 552.550 civilian and 74.736 military, which represented double air operations than 2009. For 2011, more than 50.000 air movements are expected, as January and February are showing a trend of 36,45% increase from similar period during 2010” said col. Martorell.
Reconstruction of Herat City Airport has been ongoing for about two years. This runway extension and the other constructions planned for competition during the incomings months are intended to impulse Herat international airport to consolidate as the second international airport in Afghanistan. The plan for the new Herat civilian airport had a total cost of 500.000 euro and the today extension is part of 6 million euro founds for future work into the airport
The future projects for the airport include the construction of a NATO funded taxiway that will allow larger wingspans airplane to operate on the airport, an air traffic tower, a radar and precision approach system, a new parking for the passengers and the pavement of the apron surface.
Also planned is the construction of two shelters, funded by Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) of Herat, with a capacity to house 200 Afghan civilian passengers. One of the shelters will serve as an area for security procedures for passengers, while the other will serve as an arrival. The old airport building, currently serving as a single terminal, will be replaced by a new passenger terminal that will be able to hold up to 1,000 passengers.
The furniture for the two shelters, the uniforms for the airport staff and the airport fire extinguishers will be provided by the Spanish Government.
No comments:
Post a Comment