A wholly owned government company Airport Development Limited (ADL) has revealed mouth watering plans of building one of the modern cities at Kamuzu International Airport which will be known as Airport City.
Airport Project Engineer, Sunganani Dzimkambani confirmed this saying all is set and the company was just waiting for the feasibility studies to be concluded.
“It is true ADL is planning to have a modern city in fact all is set,” he said.
Dzimkambani said the City will be located along the northern edge of the Kamuzu International Airport, earmarked to sit on 369 hectares of land.
“The proposed location is within Lumbadzi Township in the City of Lilongwe. The site is adjacent to the existing Airport, on the northern and southern part of the estate. The aim of the proposed project is to construct and establish a modern integrated Airport City,” said Dzimkambani.
He added: “The city will comprise of an office park, a hotel with world class golf-course, international hospital, high-end shopping mall, international School, international university, export processing zone with refrigerated and normal storage warehouses, cinemas, parks, car dealerships, greenhouses, high-end villas and apartments,” he said.
According to the Airport Authority, the Airport City is a visionary and ambitious project, founded on the basis of the visions of the President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera whose goal is to see a sustainable and integrated way of life for the people of Malawi.
The Project Engineer said the city will enhance the historical significance attached to the visionary airport built by the first president of the Republic of Malawi, the late President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
“The city will be an engine for economic development and in the same vein will accelerate development in the air transport sub sector. A proposed investment of establishing an airport city was included in the 2016 compendium of projects,” he said.
Dzimkambani said to this extent there would be a need to carry out a feasibility study on the proposed project including development of master plans for both Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) and the City.
Dzimkambani said the objective of the project is to have a City which will bring international standards of living, working and leisure to Malawians and visiting tourists in an unprecedented way.
Dzimkambani said the project aims at increasing among others access to employment and quality of life for the citizens of Malawi while enhancing service delivery standards to visitors and tourists from abroad.
The Airport City will be well adapted to catering for business travelers, tourists, office occupants, dwellers, students and local Malawian day visitors.
“The city will improve reliability and the image of the Civil Aviation sub-sector through the sustained development, and addition of support infrastructure,” he said.