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For a long time government has been under fire over its failure to upgrade tourist attraction sites. Many critics have said government talks more than it does, for example, on the ambitious goal to diversify from tobacco to tourism as the number one foreign exchange earner for the country.
Some tourists have been heard asking for connecting flights from either Blantyre or Lilongwe to Mangochi or any nearest place to Lake Malawi.
Those who have travelled by road from Blantyre or Lilongwe to Mangochi can have the same opinion because of the terrible condition of the roads to this tourist attraction site.
Mangochi is 191 kilometres from Blantyre and 254 kilometres from Lilongwe. On a good road, one should be able to make it in under two hours and 30 minutes but it takes close to four hours for people to drive there due to the poor state of the roads.
Currently, the aerodrome used by travellers to Mangochi is owned by the Bizzalo family—owners of Club Makokola—and is only 690 by 30 metres, a distance which cannot handle big aeroplanes, according to a report by consultants IOS Partners.
Government says it is now ready to embark on the multi-million kwacha project to construct an international airport in Mangochi. Officials say some ground work on the project should start before the end of this financial year on June 30 after finalising a study.
Victor Lungu, Director of Planning in the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, said in an interview partners for the project have already been identified and that funding was likely to flow in.
Lungu said a committee known as Mangochi Airport Committee under the Ministry of Tourism is expected to come up with a document to be used sell the project to donors and other development partners.
“The committee is now in final stages of the analysis. The airport will mainly cater for tourism Mangochi being one of the tourist spots. As of now, the issue is already part and parcel of the Private Sector Investment Programme,” he said.
Isaac Katopola, Assistant Director of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, said the idea to construct an airport in Mangochi came from the Strategic Tourism Development Plan which is expected to guide government in the industry for the next five years.
“Over the years, the roads leading to Mangochi have been very poor, especially when coming from Liwonde and the Mtakataka-Monkey Bay road. It is also very far to use the road [from Mangochi turn-off at Liwonde] from Lilongwe,” he said.
Katopola said a similar decision was made in 1976 but failed to kick start over the years due to unknown reasons. He said this is why government has decided to engage another consultant to do the costing and other estimates due to technological and currency changes.
“We feel it is safer for government to own its own airport rather than relying on the private one whose owners can change their minds any time,” he said.
According to Katopola, the first phase of the project will involve revisiting the already set plan of which a consult has already been identified while cost estimates and update will be tackled in the second phase.
The IOS Partners study report says there are currently 31 airports in the country—10 owned by private individuals and 16 owned by the Department of Civil Aviation including the Kamuzu and Chileka international airports. There is also one emergency aerodrome.
Plans have been drawn before for the Mangochi airport. It remains to be seen if this time around the plans will not fly again into thin air.
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