Blantyre Council to construct shopping mall at Chileka Airport
Blantyre District Council says it will from April this year start constructing a shopping mall at Chileka Airport as one way of boosting its revenue collection.
District Commissioner for Blantyre, Bennet Nkasala said although councils were not allowed to directly run any commercial activities, the Blantyre Council would from next week start the process of identifying private entrepreneurs to run the mall under Public –Private – Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
“The shopping mall is a good business for the council and we expect to boost our revenue generation. However, we are yet to decide how best that could be done and I am hopeful that in our next management meeting, we shall agree on how best we could implement the project,” Nkasala said.
Nkasala disclosed that the decision to come up with a shopping mall was based on huge number of visitors who fly in and out of the country through the airport and also the growing business opportunities around Chileka area.
Apart from the shopping mall, the council is also planning to advertise and lease out its old offices in Blantyre city centre and some structures at Ngumbe that are in a dilapidated state and require some maintenance.
“Our vision is to improve our revenue generation and currently we have some structures that the council is failing to rehabilitate, therefore, we would like the private sector, those willing to rehabilitate to come in and we agree on a period they should operate in those buildings,” Nkasala said.
Vice Chairperson of Blantyre District Council, Enock Mukhori concurred with Nkasala that once the shopping mall was constructed, the council would improve on payment of staff salaries as well as settling of utility bills, which he cited as a big challenge the council was currently grappling with.
According to Mukhori, the shopping mall project is expected to cost the council about K80 million.
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Boma la Malawi ndizitsilu, K80m for shopping mall really. Donate that maney to orphanage it will be better than kumati mukufuna kumanga mall Ku Chileka airport shame anthu opanda chitukuko for sure.
Absolutely. Grocery or shopping mall?
This is a bright idea coming from Blantyre District Assembly management. Think of long-range planning and financial sustainability. Well done
This is brilliant idea. Wealth creation and long term financial sustainability is based on long-range planning. Bravo Blantyre City Council
kindly stop your stupid ideas and build a good arrival and departures area.
shopping mall is for transit people.
who has time to shop before flying in or flying out?
umbuli iwe.
unaka ona zimenezo ku ma iko ena. and you just want to copy and paste here.
is your mind seriousely alright?
If this is true let it not be like that Gateway Mall atleast make a big structure upstairs and room for further development….check plan for EastRand Mall in SouthAfrica
MK80 million shopping mall, quite laughable
The idea is very nice but dont restrict yourself too much. Dziko likusintha so I think MWK80million on such infrastructure is on the lower side, Come up with a modern building which will be admired for a long time.
“Vice Chairperson of Blantyre District Council, Enock Mukhori concurred with Nkasala that once the shopping mall was constructed, the council would improve on payment of staff salaries as well as settling of utility bills, which he cited as a big challenge the council was currently grappling with.” if the whole purpose of this project ndiimeneyi then am very scared…very Scared.
Kikikiki this is a joke. K80M shopping mall? Just call it a kantini. We want state-of-the-art malls at the airport, not just any rubbish buildings there.
Swiswiri wantali mulomo ngati Mulomo wa Mulomole akutero.
kikiki K80 million for a mall what kind of a mall will this be. Isn’t it about time we construct modern and proper structures? Cry my beloved country. The quoted amount isn’t sufficient for a mall.