MINISTER for Agriculture Japhet Hasunga has been annoyed at a slow pace of the construction of modern silos in Rukwa, Katavi and Manyara regions, saying it is because of poor supervision of Tanzania Building Agency (TBA).
In additional to this, the minister has given a twomonth ultimatum to the Polish contractor , UNIA Araj Realiczje, to finish laying the foundation where six silos will be constructed at Kanondo Village on the outskirts of Sumbawanga Town in Rukwa Region.
The projects are implemented in Katavi (Mpanda) and Rukwa (Sumbawanga) at the cost of 28.2bn/-.
According to the minister, similar projects are implemented in Songea (Ruvuma), Makambako (Njombe), Mbeya, Dodoma and Shinyanga regions, insisting that poor projects have been noticed in Rukwa, Katavi and Manyara regions.
“We are here to assess the progress of the projects, but I’m dismayed at TBA’s professionalism on the supervision of the projects in the three regions…I will visit the projects in February next year, but I want action and not words.
Otherwise, you will face the consequences,” reacted the minister.Mr Hasunga is on a twoday tour of Rukwa Region during which he will inspect Sakalilo Irrigation Scheme in Lake Rukwa Valley in Sumbawanga District.
Earlier, Sumbawanga Acting National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), Marwa Range briefed the minister that Sumbawanga had a plan to improve and increase cereal storage capacity by constructing modern silos.
The Polish government has issued a soft loan to the government of Tanzania through NFRA.
The minister was further told that the Polish engineering company, UNIA Araj Realiczje, had been contracted to implement the project, but had sub-contracted the project to Arusha-based Elerai Construction Co Ltd.
“The Polish contractor, through the sub-contractor, is implementing the projects in Sumbawanga at Kanondo Village and Katavi in Mpanda Town.The newly constructed silos will have the capacity to store 20,000 tonnes of cereal and 5,000 tonnes for ordinary storage facilities. E
lectronic weigh-bridges will also be constructed.” In Katavi, a silos construction project officially took off on January 14, this year, and is expected to be completed on July 14, 2021, while in Sumbawanga, a similar project started on September 8, this year, and is expected to be completed on March 3, 2021,” noted Mr Range.
Explaining further he told the minister that Rukwa Region would have NFRA storage facilities with the capacity of storing 58,500 tonnes of cereals while Katavi Region would have the capacity to store 28,000 tonnes.
For his part, UNIA Araj Realiczje site manager Simon Kobielski told the minister that the plan was to work for 24 hours to complete the project as planned.
