Contractors working on the Wa airstrip say the facility will be ready next month for a commercial flight to start operation.

Skill Link limited was awarded a six-month contract to give a facelift to the Wa airstrip to enable commercial flight to use the facility the resident site engineer of the project, Kwao Solomon Ayeh has said. 

He disclosed this when journalist visited the site with by the Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Issahaku Nuhu Putiaha.

As part of its agenda to create an efficient transport system to open up the country for socio-economic activities, the government of Ghana embarked on the construction of aerodromes and airstrips in all the 10 regions in the country.

The Wa Airstrip was penciled to be given a major facelift to enable it to operate domestic commercial flights.

The Wa airstrip has been there for several decades and was only used for just domestic services.

Domestic airline operators have indicated that lack of insufficient terminal building and other ancillary facilities has led to poor flights operations from Accra to the Upper West regional capital.

The estimated distance between Tamale Airport, Wa and Bolgatanga is approximately between 194 miles and 100miles respectively via road.

This has brought about quite a number of traveling persons to connect to their destinations by road from Tamale via Upper East, Upper West Regions and Burkina Faso.

According to the resident site engineer, Kwao Solomon Ayeh, they began the project in March this year. The scope of work included construction of passenger terminal building, access road, fencing works to clearly define the airstrip boundaries, drainage works to control erosion and runway marking to improve visual aids at the runway.

Mr Nuhu Putiaha took a tour of the site to assess the progress of work and was taken around by Mr Solomon Ayeh.

''The progress of work is at 58%, it is a crushing programme meaning we are working on weekends to ensure that we finish on time,’’ he assured.

The Wa MCE told journalists he was impressed with the work done so far.

Earlier, Mr Nuhu Putiaha visited the Wa Juice Factory which was on the brink of collapsing but has now been given a new lease of life.

The Wa Municipal Assembly ceded the management of the juice company to Ndaana Ghana Limited due to mismanagement and what almost became an albatross hanging around their necks.

The MCE also toured some ongoing road projects and the new Wa market located on the Charia road.