Public Relations Officer at the Sierra Leone Airports Authority, Mohamed Swarray says since the new General Manager John Brima took up office, they have been faced with a lot of challenges, among them the implementation of World Bank projects to the tune of $8.9m
In an interview at his Rawdon Street office, Swarray said management had implemented some of the projects including resurfacing the run way, expanding the turning loops, procuring an air-to-ground communications equipment and constructing mini water supply projects.
Lungi, the Public Relations Officer said, does not have a lot of basic social amenities, and SALWACO which supplies water to the Airport and its environs does not supply enough to meet the airport’s water needs which is why they have the mini-water project. “We also have provision for the procurement of an 800KV generator set” he went on.
He said while bilateral and multilateral donors had had problems with supporting government’s budget their confidence level in the airport management had been impressive because “we had judiciously used the $ 2. 5-million loan initially granted us for the terminal building”.
To confirm the donors’ confidence in the airport’s management, Swarray said in successive sectoral policy letters to government, the donors had indicated that the airport authority has an extreme competent management that used donor funds for their intended purposes.
He urged the public to be patient with the Authority as “the airport wants to be able to do more before 36 months from now. We want to ensure we get our water supply system and an additional generator system for the distribution capacity. We are hopeful of delivering better services to ground landing services so as to attract more air traffic into Freetown”.
By John Baimba & Abibatu Kamara
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