New Guangzhou Airport Will Be Finished in 2002The first phase of New Guangzhou Baiyun Airport will be finished in 2002 and it will be put into service the following year.In an interview with reporters, Zhang Chunlin, President of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, said advanced foreign expertise would be introduced to operate the new airport. Zhang pledged that they would work harder to ensure the quality of the new airport. According to Zhang, construction of the terminal building for the New Guangzhou Baiyun Airport has started and local residents have been relocated. Other supporting facilities such as a highway connecting the construction site, power and water supply facilities are all ready in service, and the construction of two control towers is underway. The new airport will be built in several stages with designs provided by Parsons Corp. and URS Greiner Corp, two US firms, and the Guangdong Provincial Architectural Design Institute. It will be located in the city of Huadu and will cover an area of 1,456 hectares, about four times the area of the Baiyun Airport. Baiyun airport in the suburbs of Guangzhou is the country's busiest airport, and has long been overburdened by increasing passengers and cargo. The new airport is expected to cost a total of 20 billion yuan (about 2.4 billion US dollars), 49 percent of which will be covered by the Guangzhou Transport Investment Co. Ltd. The first- phase construction will cost about 10 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion US dollars). By 2010, when the airport is fully completed, it will be able to handle 80 million arrivals and departures and one million tons of cargo annually. |
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