The Minister of Aviation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has ordered the demolition of illegal structures on the government’s acquired 3,000 acres of land in the Central Region to pave way for the construction of an ultra-modern airstrip.
The land, located at Ataabadze, a community in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA), has been long proposed for the construction of the airstrip, but has attracted many encroachers due to years of neglect.
Appealing to the encroachers to halt their illegal acts, Mrs. Abena Dapaah warned that “we are now giving them a human face to appeal to them to stop as technical men will soon come to inspect the land.”
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday during her working visit to inspect the land, she urged traditional leaders in the area to liaise with the KEEA Municipal Assembly and the Regional Minister, to see to having “an open space to develop the aviation industry in the region.”
Though the Minister did not reveal when the construction will commence, she said the project, when finished, will be part of government’s comprehensive plan to revamp the aviation industry in Ghana, and to particularly boost tourism in the Central Region.
The Minister decried the agony tourists visiting the region go through, and indicated how the airstrip would help minimize it, saying, “We don’t want people to sit in the plane for eight hours and come and drive through Budumburam to visit Kakum National Park or Elmina Castle”.
According to the Minister, the project will start with an airstrip, and “later on, when we get a lot of funding, we can develop it into a tarmac which will take bigger aircrafts.”
The Central Region is awash with countless tourist centres. However, transportation has been a major challenge barring the region from fully tapping the expected benefits from tourism, an industry the region is noted for besides its numerous and quality educational institutions.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)