FINANCE and Planning Minister Dr Phillip Mpango, recently said that the government is ready to start compensating Msalato Ward residents whose pieces of land was booked by the State to construct a multi-million dollar international airport in Dodoma City.
Addressing members of the press on ‘the state of the national economy in 2019, and implementation of the national budget during the first half of the 2019/20financial year, the Minister warned that only eligible villagers who surrendered their plots would be compensated.
“It’s not that all submissions are correct and we will have to verify each and every demand. We had no money to proceed with the construction work, but now we have it and each and every one knows this,” he added.
Recently, the B oard of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB ) signed a concessional loan of 200 million US dollars (over 400bn/-) to finance the construction of the proposed international airport at Msalato.
The decision follows an agreement that was reached between the bank and the government in early March last year.
Already preliminary work at 715m/-, which include a feasibility study and demarcation of the area, had been conducted with grant assistance from the Arab B ank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).
However, records from the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication indicate that the ministry had already compensated some 1,432 residents, where it is planning to build the runways and passenger lounges.
In a related development, Dodoma district authorities have cautioned its residents with expectation Also to be considered in the compensation plan by invading the Kitelela area near the proposed airport to stop their ill motives.
The District Commissioner Mr Patrobas Katambi said that the State is taking all possible chances to block individuals seeking to benefit illegally.
Over a thousand of residents had been patiently waiting to be compensated for their pieces of land since 2011, when the government announced its plan to acquire some parts of their plots to build the state-ofthe- art international airport.
