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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
The cost of constructing Joshua Nkomo Expressway (Airport Road 20km) has ballooned to over $96 million following the takeover of the project by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (zinara).
The development of the project was first given to Augur Investments, which is involved in property and infrastructure development.
The company initially pegged the cost at $80 million before reducing the amount to $68 after council said it would supply aggregates.
When Harare City Council cancelled the contract with Augur, it had done work valued at $20 362 146.
Government did work amounting to $15,8 million after the takeover and is seeking a further $60 million to complete the project, bringing the total amount to over $96 million.
At the official opening of a completed section of the road recently, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo, said after completing the first phase of the road at a cost of $15,8 million, Government was now mobilising more funds to complete the second phase.
“Work on the completion of the road has been held back by the unavailability of funds, but we hope to do it soon. We intend to employ a Built-Operate-Transfer philosophy on the second phase and we are currently in discussions with some companies to that effect,” he said.
The second phase of the road comprises a direct link from Dieppe roundabout through Braeside suburb, over the National Railways of Zimbabwe marshalling yard and Robert Mugabe Way leading into Enterprise Road with a continuous flyover estimated to be almost half a kilometre.
He said the design of the road and flyover was estimated to cost $5 million and the road and flyover construction was estimated to cost $55 million.
Augur Investments had pegged the cost of flyovers at $42 million inclusive of designs.
When Augur Investment entered the deal in 2008, councillors questioned the cost of the project arguing that a similar road project stretching 77 kilometres, done by the Zimbabwe Platinum Mines in Chegutu, was valued at $19 million, while the Joshua Nkomo Expressway, which covers a distance under 20 kilometres, had been valued at a staggering $80 million.
Augur Investment chairman Mr Ken Sharpe, however, defended the cost saying constructing a 600-metre flyover along Robert Mugabe Road and Enterprise Road and a bridge was $30 million while six other such structures were estimated at $12 million.
He said Augur was charging lower rates of $1,56 million per kilometre compared to other sadc countries, which average around $1,76 million per km.
Mr Sharpe then said Airport Road was more expensive than Ngezi Road because the latter was a rural road which used inferior construction material, adding asphalt chewed about 24 percent of the cost of the road works on Airport Road.
Online Reporter