As another reader “yaabane” castigates Egal for poor workmanship and Somalilandsun for suffering from grammatical and spelling errors
Somalilandsun – In response to our article “Ethiopian Airlines, Egal Airport, Ministry of Aviation and Stranded Passengers Saga” reader Saeed who claims to have been and still is involved with upgrade works at the airport made the following comments
Siciid
I just created this account because i saw that there is a huge amount of disinformation that is spreading out from this thread. I’ve found this site “ethiopianreview” after a Somaliland newspaper “Jamhuuriya” unfortunately pointed this post out as source in it’s article.
I’ve had the honor of partaking in the rehabilitation of Egal International Airport in Hargeisa. I feel this post doesn’t reflect the great work that has been done. The whole of the runway (2440 meter long) has been paved with asphalt not once but twice. First with a DBM layer having a thickness of 60 mm then with a BC layer having a thickness of 40 mm. The professional engineers and technicians working on this paving were hailing from different countries some were Chinese, Ethiopian, Syrian and of course local Somalilanders.
The very expensive and modern equipment were all imported and included a brand new hot mix plant with a capacity of 160 t/h, 4 rollers, an asphalt paver with infrared sensors and others. All this gave the end result of a world class runway that all somalis and not just somalilanders can be proud of. Even on this same site you have posted the interview with the ethiopian pilot praising the runway. To my knowledge not a single person/organization who has had access to the runway has made a professional appraisal of the Asphalt runway to be negative.
Of course the Egal international airport project has not been completed yet. A very important part of the project which is in progress. I think that might be the reason why ethiopian airlines suspended it’s flights but i can’t be sure. Since i haven’t seen an official response from them to any of the local newspapers or websites. Also you haven’t reported how how Daallo airlines is still operating from Egal international airport yesterday and today they carried over two hundred passengers. I can’t give you the exact model of the aircraft they operate but it was a jet plane carrying almost 120 passengers. If the runway was useless and a failure they wouldn’t be able to land on it.
So i gave my two cents and if anyone interested is in Hargeisa and wants to see first hand the job we did. Please contact me and i can give you a tour so you can see for yourself the quality runway that Egal international airport has but many people fail to recognize, either because of their political affiliation or simple minded tribalism.
mabdullah@slchg .com
yaabane 2013-09-12 00:35
Truly, both, Egal International Airport and this article are done poorly. The former has poorly built runway, while the latter suffers from grammatical and spelling errors. Hence, let us call the region a doomed region.
Somaliland: Ethiopian Airlines, Egal Airport, Ministry of Aviation and Stranded Passengers Saga”
