Siriki, who disclosed this to newsmen during an inspection at the airport in Abuja, said the airport will be shut down between the month of February and March 2017, in order to carry out total repairs on the runway.
According to him, the closure will enable Julius Berger to do a total reconstruction on the badly damaged runway at the airport.
He said: “From start to finish of the runway, it will take six months. However, we will be using the runway almost throughout the period except for about six weeks when the runway will be closed. “That is when we are going to do the mid-section of the runway.
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“The government has accepted the design done by the contractor. The runway will last for more than 10 years on completion early next year.”
Sirika further said that passengers travelling to Abuja from any part of the world will use the Kaduna Airport during the six weeks.
He also acknowledged that the federal government is expected to provide buses to convey the passengers to Abuja, while the state government will provide security.
According to him, it will cost government substantial amount of money “but we think that palliative approach is wrong because three years down we will come back to do the same repairs.
“Therefore, we decided to go for the bigger option which is to do structural repairs if the runway which will take about six months to complete.”