$397m Copperbelt Airport construction starting soon’

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU THE construction of the Copperbelt International Airport (CIA) with a total cost of US$397 million will soon commence with 94 families expected to be relocated from the projects’ area this year, Zambia Airports Corporation Limited (ZACL) has disclosed.

ZACL managing director, Robinson Misitala, explained that the relocation of people with compensation from the area where the airport would be constructed was estimated to cost US$20 million or K200 million.

“The total cost for this project is US$397 million that is excluding the compensation. We estimate the compensation for be about US$20m which is about K200m,

“We intend to relocate about 94 families this year just to clear the area, the area there is 2, 000 hectares, we earmarked the first 1, 000 hectares where the key airport infrastructure is going to be,” he said.

Mr. Misitala said the project was for three years from 2017 to 2020 and would be an ultra-modern international airport.

He said the terminal building for the new international airport would have a maximum capacity of one million passengers.

Mr. Misitala also said the project was expected to create about 4, 000 jobs.

“Regarding the Copperbelt International Airport, we have started the resettling of the settlers, as you are aware, there are some people who have been staying in some of the areas where the airport is going to be so the process of relocation has just started,” he said.

He also said the airport would be carbon neutral as it would have plenty of plants aimed at promoting a green economy.