By Brian Wasili
Mwanza, June 22, Mana: Construction works of Mwanza One Stop Border Post which is four months behind schedule are expected to be completed by July 31, 2022 instead of the initial finish date of March 7, 2022, it has been established.
This was disclosed when Minister of Transport and Public Works, Jacob Hara visited the construction site to appreciate progress of the works of the facility on Tuesday.
“The contractor has assured us that the construction works are expected to be finished by the end of July and therefore, our expectation is that he is going to meet the new deadline,” he said.
Hara expressed optimism that once the modern facility is completed, government would not take long to make it operational in order to boost the country’s economy, saying because it would facilitate trade with neighbouring countries more than before.
“People from outside the country will find it easier to transact trade in Malawi than before because it will be time saving to process imports and exports; hence, generating more revenue for the government,” the Minister said.
Business Manager for China Geo-Engineering Corporation, Wilson Tian Desheng said that time schedule for completion of the work was affected by several factors ranging from the Tropical Strom Ana to COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is why the completion date was shifted from March 7, 2022 to July 31, 2022 in order to pave way for finalizing everything before handing it over to the Malawi Government,” he said.
The K3.1 billion World Bank funded project consists of main passenger terminal, port health building, office block for the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) and other agencies, inspection shed and parking area.
The Project whose construction works is currently at 85 percent completion rate started on March 7, 2021 and was initially expected to be handed over to government by March 7, 2022.
