MASSIVE KIA REHAB STARTS NEXT MONTH

Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) multi-million-dollar overhaul project starts next month.
Mid-March, Tanzania picked, BAM International contracting firm of Netherlands, to execute the massive KIA rehabilitation project  in an  effort  to elevate the airport  to a fully-fledged tourist’s gateway.
Financed by Tanzania and the Dutch governments at US$39.7 million, the makeover project, will see all runways, apron, taxiways and passenger lounge modernized in a bid to offer holidaymakers a hassle-free trip to the country’s northern tourist’s circuit.
The Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (KADCO) Managing Director, Mr Bakari Murusuri  said  that the real works will commence  early June and it will be completed in July 2016.
“ The idea behind the scheme is to give KIA a different outlook” Mr Murusuri noted, adding that KADCO since 2010 had been running the promotion blitz to the market overseas, seeking to attract major global airlines to operate from KIA.
 With increased traffic, demands for customer satisfaction, security concerns and growing competition, KIA has found it imperative to benchmark itself with pace setting organizations meetings and overcoming emerging challenges along the way.
The 44-year-old airport, situated between Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions, has over the years undergone a series of touch-ups and renovations, but now it  is set to achieve world-class status with the complete makeover.
KADCO Director of Operations and Technical Services, Mr Christopher Mukoma, said that the airport’s modernization includes the expansion of the terminal buildings, increasing the length and width of taxiways and runways, expanding aircraft aprons as well as establishing other essential services at the terminal.
BAM will also install a new airfield ground lighting and floodlights along the aprons, resurface the runways, and create continuous loop linking runways and taxiways to eliminate delays in landing and take-off.
Boasting an annual increase of 25 per cent in passenger traffic, KIA  management this year expects to handle nearly 1.2 million flying customers. Inaugurated for business in 1972, KIA was designed to handle just 200,000 passengers.
Natural Resources and Tourism Minister, Lazaro Nyalandu said KIA revamping was imperative and comes at the opportune moment as the country wants to elevate the airport as truly gateway to Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National parks, the world famous destinations visited by hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists from all over the world.
Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) Executive Officer, Sirili Akko welcomed the face-lift but said the KADCO should also develop other tourism-related infrastructure and recreation facilities to lure overseas tourists.
 Already KADCO has developed a comprehensive plan that would see the 110 sq km estates surrounding the Tanzania's second largest airport, transformed into a state-of-the art, modern duty free shopping city.
Apart from the air terminal, the KIA area, strategically placed at the meeting point of three Northern Zone regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Manyara, has for many years remained a wide stretch of unoccupied land as far as the eye can see, but this was bound to soon change.
According to the master plan, the location was to become a 'city' at the center of Moshi and Arusha, where prospective investors were to establish, shopping centers, high class tourist hotels, duty free ports, export processing zone, educational Institutions, custom bonded warehouses, curio shops, golf courses and a large game ranch.