The government of Tanzania has until September spent 36 percent of its budget for the 2019/2020 financial year that started on July 1 on implementation of three flagship projects, an official told parliament Tuesday.
Ashatu Kijaji, the Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, mentioned the three flagship projects as the standard gauge railway (SGR), the Julius Nyerere hydropower project in the Rufiji basin and the purchase of planes for the national airline, Air Tanzania Company Limited.
Kijaji was responding to queries raised by Members of Parliament during a week-long debate on the Second Five-Year National Development Plan (2016/2017-2020/2021) and the national budget estimates for the 2020/2021.
She said until September 2019, the government released 2.5 trillion Tanzanian shillings (about 1.09 billion U.S. dollars) of its 2019/2020 budget for implementation of the SGR project.
“Upon completion of the SGR project the government will save 6.7 billion shillings that it was spending annually to renovate roads,” she told the House in the capital Dodoma.
Kijaji said implementation of the flagship projects have stimulated the economy since most of the construction materials such as cement and steel are sourced locally.
More than 640 local contractors are directly engaged in the SGR project, said the official.
She said the government has offered tenders worth 664.7 billion shillings to local contractors, adding that more than nine million bags of cement will be used for implementation of the 522-kilometer -long Dar es Salaam-Morogoro and Morogoro-Makutupora section of the SGR project.
Kijaji said all the cement used in the project is manufactured locally, adding that the project has offered 13,117 jobs until September this year.
Upon completion, the SGR is expected to usher in the country, for the first time, a fast and modern passenger train with a speed of 160 kilometers per hour and a freight train with a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour.
The SGR will also help ease the flow of goods and people in the neighboring landlocked countries of Uganda, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda.
Kijaji said a total of 1,456 jobs have been created through implementation of the Julius Nyerere hydropower project in the Selous Game Reserve.
She said construction of the dam and hydroelectric power plant was expected to be completed in 2022 at a cost of 1.38 billion dollars, enabling the plant to produce 2,115 megawatts. Enditem
