Govt mulls joint venture airport for Mutare
GOVERNMENT and the private sector will this week sign a joint venture agreement for the refurbishment of Grand Reef Aerodrome in Mutare.
However, there are plans to construct a bigger airport for the city.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development Dr Joram Gumbo in January, gave the private sector the green light to establish airport facilities and refurbish Grand Reef Aerodrome, 30 kilometres west of Mutare, as a stop-gap measure to facilitate the immediate flying in of tourists to the Eastern Highlands.
Government is working on plans to construct a bigger airport, which will be able to accommodate big cargo and passenger planes.
The project, wholly funded by the private sector through the Mutare Airport Campaign Committee (MACC), is a public-private partnership (PPP) with Government, which will be supervised by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ).
Last week, MACC chairperson Mr Joseph Sanhanga said stakeholders would meet this week to discuss and agree on terms of the joint venture to be adopted.
“We will sign the joint venture agreement next week (this week) with CAAZ and agree on terms that will enable us to commence refurbishment works at Grand Reef as a stop-gap measure to get small passenger planes flying to Mutare in the next few months,” he said
He said once the joint venture agreement was signed, work would commence to clear the runway, erect a security fence, as well as refurbish several essential out-buildings.
Grand Reef Aerodrome, which used to serve as a military base, has a 1,24-kilometre runway.
Mr Sanhanga said the consortium will use the JV agreement as a conduit through which it will negotiate with CAAZ to be contracted for the main Mutare Airport, which will be situated in Mutasa district.
In February, MACC hosted officials from CAAZ who inspected the Grand Reef Aerodrome, as well as the proposed site for the new airport.
“The team noted that there was no room for expansion at Grand Reef because of the people who were resettled in nearby farms from the Chiadzwa area,” said Mr Sanhanga. “But the new site that was proposed is better and more lucrative. It has room to cater for a 4km to 4,5km runway for cargo planes.”
Mr Sanhanga said the consortium had financiers who were interested in aviation projects in the region.
“It is not an overnight thing, but with political will, we are already seeing upshots on the ground, which create hope, especially in business coming from an era where industrial capacity utilisation in the province was reaching less than 10 percent and many industries and businesses ceasing operations,” he said.
“Government has opened participation in PPPs and the message now to private sector is for us to seize the opportunities and stop being cry babies that complain over spilt milk instead of living in the moment and seizing opportunities at hand.”