Tanzania has secured a US$272 million loan for the construction of a new international airport in the country’s administrative capital.

To be located in Dodoma, the 1 million passenger-per-annum-capacity airport will, according to the AfDB (which granted the loan), ‘include a passenger terminal, a runway, air navigation equipment [as well as] operational services such as a fuel distribution company, water supply systems, electrical power distribution substations and a fire-fighting service’.

Reuters reports that the project forms part of a government programme to expand the East African nation’s infrastructure.

‘An expanded air transport network in Dodoma, together with the ongoing high-speed railway construction on the central corridor, are necessary infrastructure investments to help unlock and disperse spatial development in the countryside,’ says Amadou Oumarou, AfDB director of infrastructure and urban development.

‘This will strengthen the city’s potential as a strategic growth pole in keeping with Tanzania’s national development aspirations of fostering shared growth for all the regions.’

Construction is expected to take four years.

4 February 2020
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