AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has issued a 15-day ultimatum to Chamwino District leadership, Tanzania Building Agency (TBA) and Suma JK to complete the construction of Uhuru Hospital in Dodoma Region.
The prime minister issued the ultimatum on Friday when he visited the site of the project, during which he insisted that the construction must be completed in 15 days because it is scheduled to be inaugurated on December 9.
“This project must be completed in 15 days so that President John Magufuli can inaugurate it on December 9 (Independence Day) to fulfil his dream of having this facility,” he insisted.
He added: “I am satisfied with the pace of the project implementation, but it is not enough. The entire workforce must camp here. This is the time to work. Make sure the job is done 24/7 so that it is complete by December 5, ready for inauguration on Independence Day,” he added.
The Prime Minister said it is pertinent for all construction materials such as tiles to be locally sourced to speed up the project implementation, because currently local industries produce a variety of quality construction materials.
“You are arguing about tile installation; would you prefer imported ones? Why do you (TBA) insist on buying tiles from abroad? The government encourages construction of industries in the country, we have several of them, which produce quality tiles at Chalinze and Mkuranga, even the National Electoral Commission’s new building has used locally produced tiles… It is better that you have not yet procured them, and please do not do so, we have industries in the country,” he stressed.
Elaborating further on the hospital construction, the Permanent Secretary to the President’s Office, Engineer Joseph Nyamhanga said that the construction of the hospital is an implementation of President John Magufuli’s directives after providing 995.1m/-, which was set aside for the 57th independence celebrations on December 9, 2018. Uhuru Hospital is being constructed at a cost of 3.99bn/-, the money that was provided by President John Magufuli when he suspended the Uhuru Celebrations on December 9, 2018 as well as another funding from Airtel through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) The president further added 2.415/- bn/- to the hospital’s construction in 2019, which was a portion of dividend he received from the telecommunication company of Airtel, he explained.
He said as of November 19 this year, an amount of 4,430,721,498.00/- had been received for construction of the hospital.
“The amount already spent is 4,062,310,051.76/-, and the remaining balance is 368,411,446.24/-.”
Explaining future plans, Engineer Nyamhanga said for the year 2020/2021, the government has planned to continue with the construction of 27 council hospitals; of which each has been allocated one billion shillings.
He added that another 27.75bn/- has been allocated for the construction of 555 dispensaries; where three dispensaries will be built in each council, with each costing 50/- million.
