The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has decided to go ahead with plans to build a fourth runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport and intends to ask the government for funds to begin construction work in fiscal 2003, government officials said Saturday.
The land ministry hopes to have the runway in operation by 2009. The expansion project will cost at least 800 billion yen in tax money.
Land ministry officials said the ministry has yet to decide on the amount of funds for construction that it wants from the government in fiscal 2003, which begins April 1.
Ministry officials say a decision will be made late this year, by the time the government prepares the fiscal 2003 budget.
The ministry has been considering three engineering options for the proposed offshore runway at Haneda: A floating runway built by joining up huge floating tanks; a pier-type runway; and a hybrid runway built part through landfill and part on a pier structure.
The amount of funding for fiscal 2003 will depend on the ministry's decision on the type of runway to be constructed. The total cost of construction, depending on the design, is expected to be between 530 billion yen and 560 billion yen.
The final bill is likely to exceed 800 billion yen when the cost of terminal buildings and other facilities to handle international flights are included.
That means government outlays of 100 billion yen a year if it is to be operational by the 2009 target date.
According to land ministry calculations, when the fourth runway becomes operational, Haneda will be able to handle 407,000 flights a year, up from 275,000 at present.
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