DAR ES SALAAM, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's new state-of-the-art terminal at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam is expected to open in June 2019 after funding delays were resolved, the Prime Minister's Office said on Friday.
The long delayed completion of the terminal of the country's main airport is expected to boost government plans to transform Tanzania into a regional transport hub.
Seventy percent of the construction of the airport, expected to cost about 300 million U.S. dollars, is completed, said the statement issued after Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa inspected construction of the terminal.
The new terminal III building at the JNIA will have capacity to park 24 large aircraft at once and handle 6 million passengers each year, said the statement.
Annual traffic at the airport currently stands at around 2.5 million passengers.
Expanding the airport is part of the Tanzanian government's plan to transform Tanzania into a regional hub and boost the country's tourism sector.
The airport construction had initially been due to be completed in 2015, but the schedule was delayed due to shortage of funds.
Tanzania has ramped up infrastructure spending in recent years to expand and build new transport links.
The JNIA terminal III project is designed to accommodate growing traffic and boost tourist arrivals in Tanzania.
Tourism, Tanzania's biggest foreign exchange earner, fetched around 2.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, according to latest Bank of Tanzania data.
Tanzania currently relies the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Kenya to receive some of its tourists as some major airlines, such as British Airways, currently do not fly to its airports due to low traffic levels.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli ordered a probe into the airport project in February last year after project costs and construction schedules were derailed.
The new airport terminal is being built by Dutch contractor BAM Group in two phases.
