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Interview: Ghana to relocate strategic military range for new int'l airport

Xinhua, January 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is considering relocating its strategic shooting range at Bondase, near the port city of Tema, 38 km east of the national capital, to make way for a new international airport.

Lt. Col. Eric Aggrey-Quashie, Director for the Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations (DPR), told Xinhua via telephone the range "will be relocated to a possible new location, once the new airport project begins".

He said the decision to move the camp is based on the fact that there is the firing of live ammunition at the training camp which cannot be happening close to an airport in the same vicinity.

"We cannot be firing live ammunition while commercial aircraft are also flying past," Lt. Col Aggrey-Quashie explained.

According to him, the range of weaponry used at the firing range is taken into consideration when locating a military training camp.

He said almost all the weaponry of the GAF discharged live ammunition at the Bondase training camp, necessitating the relocating to make way for the proposed airport.

Minister for the Interior (Homeland Security) Mark Owen Woyongo had indicated earlier that the new camp would be set up on a disputed land between two traditional areas of Alavanyo and Nkonya in the Volta Region, about 220 km north of the capital.

The minister said the move by the military was one of the surest ways of restoring peace and harmony in the two towns which have been battling themselves for over 90 years now.

Lives have been lost in the conflict between the two communities over the land known as Kpeitor for over nine decades.

However, the Armed Forces DPR said many options were under consideration to determine the most suitable location, looking at the variety of training regimes that take place at the current training camp.

He said it was possible to locate the camping infrastructure onto the disputed land while the actual training might take place elsewhere.

Ghana's Ministry of Transport signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China Airport Civil Construction (CACC), one of the biggest airport construction companies in the world, to begin a feasibility study on the new international airport.

The design of the airport is to enable it to deal with an annual passenger throughput of 4.5 million, an annual passenger aircraft movement of 33,835 and a peak-hour passenger aircraft movement of 12.

The existing Kotoka International Airport has the capacity for large aircraft such as the Boeing 747-8, and saw 2.684 million passengers in 2013. Endi