Works on Kenyas newest airport will start in January as the country seeks to expand its transport infrastructure to meet the growing demand of air travellers.
The new airport will be built at the site of the old tower at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
We shall be opening the tenders on September 21 and we expect the works to start by January next year, said Stephen Gichuki, the managing director of Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
The new airport will cost $500 million or Sh45 billion by current exchange rate and would take two years to complete.
The winner of the tender is expected to design, build and finance the airport through a debt to the KAA.
We have calculated that with our current cash flow, and the one expected from the new facility, we can be able to service the loan, said Mr Gichuki.
The number of passengers using the JKIA has been increasing in the past years, from 4.7 million passengers in 2008 to six million passengers expected to use the facility this year, according to KAA.
The number of aircraft using the facility increased from 76,273 to 96,071 in the same period.
It is estimated that 38 million passengers will use JKIA annually by 2030, the year Kenya has set out to achieve middle income status.
The new airport is part of Vision 2030 transport pillar that includes building of Lamu port and related facilities. Upgrading and building of major roads across the country also form part of the infrastructure projects under Vision 2030.
The new airport will have the capacity to handle up to 20 million passengers, 50 international check-in points and 10 for domestic flights. It will also have a railway terminus to ease passenger transport to and from the airport.
The project is expected to further improve Kenyas status as a regional air flight connection hub and enable more airlines to use the Kenyan facilities for interconnection.
The airports authority will, however, need to deal with the inconveniences like the frequent power outages that have affected JKIA for a while leading to diversion of aircraft to neighbouring countries because of dark runway.
KAA said it is increasing the number of stand-by generators from the current four and that is has acquired a mobile lighting system that will guide aeroplanes to land and take off even when there is a problem with electricity supply.