Lack of surveillance radars denies country 18bn/- each year.
HAPA CHINI▼▼
HAPA CHINI▼▼
TANZANIA
misses out 18bn/- each year from international airlines using the country’s
skyline due to lack of surveillance radars to guide them, Deputy Minister for
Works, Transport and Communications, Engineer Edwin Ngonyani, revealed
yesterday.
“International
airlines flying over our skyline are supposed to pay charges but this is not
the case since we do not have the radars,” Eng. Ngonyani disclosed when
officiating at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) stakeholders’
forum in Dar es Salaam.
Adding,
“Our counterparts in Kenya and Uganda are now utilizing the opportunity since
they have capacities to guide airlines in Tanzania’s airborne.” The country
requires four surveillance radars to have full coverage of the airborne but the
one currently operating is obsolete.
It
is on this backdrop that the government has placed orders to purchase two
radars at a total cost of US $24 million for installation at the Julius Nyerere
International Airport (JNIA) and Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).
“During
the current financial year the government will procure two radars and
additional two radars will be acquired in the next fiscal year which will be
fixed at Songwe International Airport in Mbeya and Mwanza Airport,” Eng.
Ngonyani explained.
According
to the Deputy Minister, each of the radars will cost US $12 million dollars and
are expected to be delivered in 18 months after the order has been placed. For
his part, the Director General of the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA),
Mr Hamza Johari, said a task force has been formed to work on procurement of
the radars.
“We
are still consulting International Civil Aviation Authority Organization (ICAO)
to provide us with specifications for the equipment,” Mr Johari told reporters
on the sidelines of the meeting. The DG said the equipment would boost revenues
as well as efficiency and safety in the aviation industry in the country. The
IATA stakeholders’ forum brings together member airlines from Africa to discuss
and propose solutions to challenges facing the aviation industry in the
continent.
The
Deputy Minister went on to assure delegates at the meeting that the government
of Tanzania was committed to revive Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) and
restoring its membership with IATA. Privately owned Precision Air is the only
member airline of IATA in Tanzania following suspension of Tanzania in the past
on concerns of safety of its fleet of aircraft.
Eng.
Ngonyani stressed that the revival of ATCL and eventual restoration of its
membership with IATA was among priorities of the government.
HAPA CHINI▼▼
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HAPA CHINI▼▼