Chongoene airport in Mozambique’s Gaza province will start being built, with the President of Mozambique laying the first stone last Friday, Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias reported.
At the ceremony, attended by the Chinese ambassador to Mozambique, Cui Aimin, President Filipe Nyusi described the future airport as “the emergency exit that has always been lacking in the province of Gaza in cases of distress determined by natural disasters.”
The Minister of Transport and Communications said in February 2017 that the Mozambican government was waiting for the China Export and Import Bank to approve a US$60 million loan to begin construction of Chongoene airport.
Minister Carlos Mesquita, who visited the site where the airport will be built, said the feasibility study and the environmental impact study had been completed and now the government was awaiting approval of the loan to start building the plant in an area of approximately 4,000 hectares.
The Chongoene district, which was recently created, has the first higher education facility in Gaza, the Pedagogical University, and one of the most attractive beaches in Mozambique bearing the name of the capital of Xai-Xai district.
Last September, Notícias reported that Mozambique and China were planning a coastal shipping (cabotage) project in Chongoene, which would also have adjacent rail links, connecting it to the Limpopo Corridor in Macarretane, as well as structural projects such as the Chibuto and Jangamo heavy sands projects in Gaza and in Inhambane, respectively.
The daily newspaper quoted Leonardo Simão, chairman of Muyaque’s board of directors, who said in Beijing at the China/Mozambique Business Forum, that there is already a partnership with China Railways International Group to move ahead with the project costing an estimated US$300 million.
Source: Macauhub
