FOUNDATION and excavation works have been completed in the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Expansion project, and expansion of the runway is expected to be completed within another year, even as the entire project is scheduled for completion by December 2017.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, informed the National Assembly of the foregoing on Thursday evening during the 2017 budget debates, and added that renovation works for the existing terminal building would be carried out in stages, commencing from the check-in side in the first quarter of 2017, and lasting until the end of the project.

Patterson said foundation works to the new Arrival terminal building have commenced, and are expected to be completed by May next year.

He said sand backfill has been 68.7 per cent completed at both ends of the existing main runway, and June 2017 has been set as the timeline for completion.

Regarding the relocation of Timehri North residents, Patterson said that unlike what had been planned by the previous administration, only two residents within the North West footprint have been relocated, but contracts have been awarded for the relocation of another three residents within the area.

The CJIA is projected to earn $1.3B by December 31, 2016, and Patterson has said that at the end of November 2016, revenue collected amounted to $1.168B, compared to $1.033B for the corresponding period in 2015.

“These collections reflect a 13% increase,” he noted.

He said the CJIA recorded 513,444 processed passengers as at the end of November 2016, compared to 459,346 for the same period last year.

He said the airport was twice successfully audited by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United State of America in 2016.

And he said that Expressions of Interest have been invited for the provision of state-of-the-art security equipment and services at CJIA.