NIT all set to become varsity after $62m Chinese support
What you need to know:
- NIT rector Zacharia Mganilwa said at the weekend that the financing puts the institute on the list of five transport universities to be built with the Chinese government’s support in Africa
Dar es Salaam. The National Institute of Transport (NIT) is on track to become a transport university, thanks to a $62 million financing facility from the Chinese government.
The NIT Rector, Prof Zacharia Mganilwa, said in Dar es Salaam at the weekend that the $62 million financing puts the Institute on the list of five transport universities to be built with the Chinese government’s support in Africa.
“We expect to see the NIT University of Transport becoming a new project of the People’s Republic of China,” he said - adding that they were now waiting for China to sign the minutes so that the project can move to the implementation stage.
The NIT University of Transport will help Tanzania in increasing the number of professionals in mega transport projects.
It will have other colleges, including the College of Railway and Road Engineering Technology, the College of Aerospace Science and Technology, and College of Transport and Allied Sciences.
A feasibility study for campus design of the upgrade of the NIT to transport university was conducted by China’s Southwest Jiaotong University.
The NIT university will receive from China all the relevant technological machines to aid teaching in the areas aviation, railway, maritime and road transport.
Kenya, Uganda, the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia will also benefit from the proposed NIT Transport University by sending their students to pursue transport courses in Tanzania.
The project will also see to NIT expanding its Lindi Campus which is meant for Maritime Studies and Petroleum Technology; the KIA Campus for Aviation training while an 800-acre land in Dodoma City was earmarked for another transport training facility.
The government has received a loan of $75 million to establish four centres of excellence for various sectors in the country whereby experts in different fields will be trained as the nation moves towards an upper-middle income, semi-industrialised economy.
One of the four centres of excellence to be established in the country will be an aviation and transport operations centre at NIT, which will consume a total of $21.25 million.
The NIT’s centre of excellence in aviation and transport operations will include the construction of various infrastructures in Dar es Salaam.
(JNIA) and Kilimanjaro (KIA), the purchasing of training equipment for pilots, aircraft engineers and cabin crew training.
