Construction works of Copperbelt airport stall

Tue, 25 Apr 2017 10:25:20 +0000

By VIOLET TEMBO

Small scale farmers  displaced to pave way for construction of Copperbelt greenfield Airport in  Dag Hammarskjold in Ndola say they will only move out when government gives them official communication on which site they are to be resettled.

This follows a concerned raised by Avic International Project Engineering Company contracted by government to construct the newairport on the delay to relocate the 496 families settled on the 2,000 hectares of land

The farmers’ spokesperson Patrick Mutanga told the Daily Nation that the committee has been engaging the provincial administration on compensation mode. Mr.Mutanga said the expectation of the farmers was to be awarded money and land.

” We have not refused to relocate but government has delayed the process. Earlier the verification process had its own challenges, then government opted to compensate farmers in monetary  terms only using government  rates to which the farmers refused,

“Then first week of this month we saw our provincial Minister on Television stating that government had decided to meet our demand to compensate us and give us alternative land to continue our farming activities. To date we have not been engaged by the provincial administration to formally communicate to us,” he said.

Avic Company project Engineering  Senior Consultant Lei Yingqi said commencement of the project has delayed ,asking government to push for progress of the construction of the airport.

Mr. Yingqi explained that his company had mobilized the team and equipment to commence construction works but has been forced to  delay to wait for government to relocate the affected families.

He said that government should move in quickly and relocate the affected families for the project to commence.