Zambia’s $522million Copperbelt international airport works have suffered major setback as coronavirus effects extend to the copper producer. This was established with Special assistant to the President for Projects Implementation and Monitoring Andrew Chella paid a courtesy visit on the AVIC engineering team at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe international airport in Ndola on 20 March.
AVIC International Chief Engineer Gao Chaoyi told the delegation that because of the disease pandemic, 50-100 Chinese specialized staff are unable to come to Zambia to complete works for technical equipment ordered from Europe and China which have delayed.
The SMKIA project is currently 60% complete and risks missing its completion target. The airport will service traffic of a million passengers annually when complete.
Zambia has various infrastructure projects currently ranging from road to building constructions which are forecast to be adversely impacted by the global pandemic.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur