The National Institute of
Transport (NIT) in
Tanzania is set to receive US $ 83.5m from the World Bank and the Chinese government to cater for the
institution’s upgrade to a university.
The ministry of finance and planning representing
the republic of Tanzania’s government has already signed the loan agreement
with World Bank and the funds will be released when the ministry of education,
science, technology and Vocational training has inked the contract as well, in
place of NIT.
A total of US $21.5m will be provided by World Bank
as soft loan while the rest (US $62m) will be inform of grants from the Chinese
government. The school will be constructed on a 60-hectare piece of land which
has already been handed over to NIT, courtesy of Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (Kadco).
After transformation NIT will be renamed to
National University of Transport (NUT) which will be offering aviation related
courses in its new college of Aero scope science & technology as well as a
proposed Flying Academy.
Feasibility studies for the Flying Academy
undertaken by Southwest Jiaotong University commenced last year and are
expected to end soon while the actual work for the project is set to begin in
June this year with civil works kicking off first.
Prof Zacharia Mganilwa, the head of NIT said that
this development is very crucial to Tanzanians because the country needs more
pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and cabin crews all of whom will be
trained at the NUT’s school of Aero scope science & technology and the
Flying Academy upon completion.
On the NIT’s expansion pipeline, there is also construction of the institutions’ College of Marine campus in Lindi where it has acquired a 150-acre parcel of land but a source of funding is yet to be found.https://constructionreviewonline.com/2019/04/tanzanias-nit-to-receive-us-83-5m-for-its-transformation-into-a-university/
