Rains stall completion of Vic Falls Airport upgrade

VICTORIA FALLS - The upgrading of Victoria Falls International Airport envisaged to have been completed by end of April next year, has been delayed by three months, according to the State Press. 
 
According a Chronicle report, the extension has been necessitated by procurement bottlenecks and rains. The delay has seen the contractors adding 103 days after the procurement bottlenecks were cleared, a development that will now see completion of the US$150 million Chinese EximBank- funded project being moved to July 2015.

Engineers told Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Obert Mpofu during a tour of the airport last week that the project was 50 percent complete.

Site Engineer Owen Nyama said rains that fell last season saw the Chinese contractor requesting more time. The project is set to transform the airport to international standards enabling it to handle bigger planes.

Construction work aimed at upgrading the airport was on course with the three-storey international terminal building almost 50 percent complete, while a new 4km runway, which is 60 metres wide, was 70 percent complete.
 
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe chief executive officer David Chawota said it was envisaged that upon completion, international airlines would fly directly to and from Victoria Falls unlike at present where only national and regional airlines ply the airport.
 
Minister Mpofu said it was time Government ministries and departments stopped paying lip service to Zim- Asset.

"As a ministry, we have agreed that instead of explaining Zim-Asset, we implement it," he said.

"We have seen some people using elaborate articulation of Zim-Asset, theorising it. We will not do that, but implement Zim-Asset as we have seen here."