Africa-Press – Tanzania. AFTER five years of waiting, the construction of the biggest resort in East African region, ‘Zanzibar Amber Resort’, in Matemwe coastal village, North of Unguja has resumed.
Report availed to the Sunday News by Zanzibar Amber Resort manager Murtaza Hassanal and the project director of the Pennyroyal (Gibraltar) Limited Mr Saleh Mohamed Said, the first phase of the construction project is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
The resumption of the construction of the multi-billion project comes at the time when the government intensifies efforts in the implementation of Bleu Economy policy.
Speaking at the construction site to reporters and Members of the Chama Chama Mapinduzi (CCM) Central Council of Unguja North Region, Mr Said and Mr Hassanal said that work has been going on smoothly with expectations of completing the project on time.
“We had some unavoidable problems which contributed to the delay of the project. For example, we were supposed to get our lease in 2015, but it was not possible until late 2018,” Mr Said explained.
He mentioned other challenges which contributed to the delay as shortage of sand for construction of the 1.6bn US dollars project.
The director said that the first phase of the project involves construction of a five-star hotel with at least 50 rooms and a four-room presidential suite, recreation centre, golf course and 60 modern houses for sale in the area.
He explained that the houses will be sold based on square metres and each square metre will cost 1,600 US dollars, adding that the construction work has created about 700 employment opportunities.
“But it is unfortunate that most of the local youths or residents in the area shun manual work such as masonry,” he said.
According to Mr Hassanal, the project also includes construction of luxury villas, and that the total area for the project to be implemented in phases, measures 411 hectares.
“We have started receiving insufficient sand for the project. We requested 15,000 tonnes but we received 4,000 tonnes for phase one,” he said.
The CCM Central Council- North Region chairperson Mr Iddi Ali Ame and the Regional Commissioner (RC) in the region Mr Ayoub Mohamed Mahmoud were optimistic about the project, saying: “The government has been carefully following the implementation of the project tat expected to increase revenue and create jobs.”
