The government has spent over 1.1tri/- for the construction and rehabilitation of airports in the past three years, Minister for Transport, Professor Makame Mbarawa said on Thursday.
Prof Mbarawa said this during the signing of the contract between the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) and Taifa Mining and Civil Limited worth 29bn/- for the completion of the Mwanza Airport passenger terminal project.
He mentioned the project as Msalato International Airport construction that is being implemented in two phases. The first phase is being implemented at a tune of 165.62bn/- and the second phase will cost 194.403bn/-.
Other projects include Musoma which has cost 36.638bn/- so far, Shinyanga airport (49bn/-) Tabora (27bn/- ), Sumbawanga (50.9bn/-) and Kigoma (38.63bn/-). Others are Iringa airport (63.73bn/-), Songwe (28.87bn/- ), Songea 37.09bn/-, Mtwara (56.99bn/-), Dodoma (10bn/-) as well as Arusha (30bn/-).
“We are in the final stage to secure the contractor for execution of the passenger terminal at Mtwara Airport as well as rehabilitation of the Lindi Airport,” he said.
He directed TAA to ensure that the Mwanza Airport project is completed by December this year while observing value for money and standards. He said the objective is to make Mwanza Airport meet international standards. The minister directed TAA to come up with strategies that will make all airports operate profitably.
TAA Director General, Mr Mussa Mbura said that since 2012, the government has been disbursing funds for major improvement at Mwanza Airport, including expansion of runways, airport apron for passengers and cargo flights, installation of the well-equipped plane control and meteorological towers, among others.
He said since then, the improvements enabled the airport to accommodate at the same time, six Boeing 737 aircraft with 150 passengers’ capacity each, as well as eight caravan aircraft with capacity of carrying 15 passengers each.
In 2019, he added, the government embarked on the construction of a passenger building with the capacity to serve at least one million passengers annually.
He said already 9bn/- has been spent for external works. He said will entail construction of vehicle parking lots of not less than 300 cars, as well as construction of the approaching roads towards passengers’ buildings.
The project was being supervised by the Mwanza Regional office. Earlier, Mwanza Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Amos Makalla said that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had demanded the construction of the terminal to be fast-tracked.
Source:Daily News