The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Services and Development has expressed its satisfaction on the ongoing construction of the Ufundi Tower at Arusha Technical College (ATC).
Led by the chairperson Stanslaus Nyongo, the committee nodded on the pace of the construction of the four-storey building which will have, among others, classrooms, offices and Labs.
Mr Nyongo singled out praise to ATC’s management for implementing the project through Force Account payment method, through Arusha Technical College Production and Consulting Bureau (ATC-PCB).
“It is indeed rewarding to bear witness to such a magnificent progress, we urge ATC to start using this facility sooner than later,” directed the Bunge team chairperson.
The Maswa East lawmaker further called on ATC’s management to start moving furniture and other equipment into the state-of-the-art facility.
The construction of Ufundi Tower started in January 27 this year after the Arusha based college received 1.7bn/- in the form of Covid-19 funds.
A whopping 6.8bn/- was initially earmarked for the construction of the facility, courtesy of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).
The project would however come to a stall until the Covid-19 funds came to the rescue.
In his rejoinder, ATC Acting Rector Dr Musa Chacha informed the house committee that the project had by August 31 this year reached 99 per cent.
According to Dr Chacha, ATC had received a further 481m/- from the Education Science and Technology docket for installing furniture in the building.
“Once the project gets completed, it will be able to serve 1,025 students and 104 staff members,” disclosed the ATC’s Acting Rector.
He added: Once it completed, this facility will decongest our classrooms and laboratories thus enhancing learning environment at the college.
ATC was established in 1978 jointly by the Governments of the United Republic of Tanzania and Germany also known as FRG-Federal Republic of Germany ‘West Germany’, under the name of the Technical College Arusha (TCA).
Part of the responsibilities of ATC at the time of its inception was to train technicians for three years to the level of the Full Technician Certificate (FTC) in the fields of Automotive Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Transport Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
In March 2007, the name changed to the Arusha Technical College (ATC) through the Arusha Technical College Establishment Order number 78 as enabled by the NACTE Act number 9 of 1997.