BUKOBA AIRPORT EXPANSION WORK STALLS DUE TO DELAYED COMPENSATION
(Posted 22nd August 2014)
Tanzania’s Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Dr. Charles Tizeba during a recent visit to Bukoba, the capital of the Kagera District, explained that further expansion and modernization work at the airport depended on first compensating a number of people but that the respective funds have yet to be released by government. Bukoba, Tanzania’s main town on the Western shores of Lake Victoria, is notoriously difficult to reach, and unless one undertakes a very long road journey around Lake Victoria or else take a ferry across from Mwanza, air travel is the fastest and most reliable mode of transportation.
The project of completing the upgrading of Bukoba, due to have been completed by late last year, therefore hangs in the balance though flights are ongoing. Auric Air is flying scheduled services into Bukoba, soon to be extended to Entebbe, as does Precision Air also operate regular scheduled flights while other domestic airlines offer the more expensive charter option.
No firm dates were given by the Minister when the construction would resume and then be completed.
The Bukoba airport expansion is part of a wider programme by the Tanzanian government to rehabilitate, upgrade and modernize in particular secondary airports and tertiary aerodromes across the sprawling East African country where many towns take long journeys by road or rail, making air transport the only fast track option travelers have.
