Construction of Msalato International Airport in Tanzania to start soon

Posted on : Friday , 11th June 2021

The construction works of the proposed Msalato International Airport (MSIA) in Tanzania are expected to start after this financial year according to the Tanzania Airports Authority.

This will probably come following the approval of the 2021/22 budget that was recently presented to the East African country’s parliament by the Ministry of Works and Transport. In the over US$ 1.6bn budget, the Ministry has allocated close to US$ 14M to facilitate the construction of the next-generation international airport in Dodoma. The airport project also benefits from the over US$ 2bn budget approved by the Parliament of Tanzania in the financial year 2020/21.

The African Development Bank will support the implementation of the project through a US$ 272.12M loan. US$ 198.6M of the loan will come from the African Development Bank, US$ 23.52M from the African Development Fund (ADF), and US$ 50M in co-financing with the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF).

An overview of the project

The proposed airport is to be built along the Dodoma-Arusha highway, approximately 12 km from the Dodoma Central Business District (CBD) on a 45 square kilometers piece of land.

The project will entail the construction of a runway, main passenger aircraft parking apron, aircraft control tower, passengers terminal and office buildings, car parking lots, shops, supermarkets, banking facilities, and other ancillary facilities such as fuel depots, airport catering, general aviation facilities and electrical and mechanical services including transformer and generator rooms, mechanical ventilation plant, refuse disposal units, pump rooms, etc.

It will be carried out in two phases over a period of four years.

A strategic project derived from Tanzania’s Development Vision (TDV) 2025

The construction of the MSIA is a strategic project derived from the current Tanzanian Five Years Development Plan (2016/2017-2020/2021) under Tanzania’s Development Vision (TDV) 2025.

Upon completion, the project will support the government’s current priority to relocate administrative functions from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, and in so doing, meet the anticipated increase in connectivity and access needs in the medium-to-long term.