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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
MATABELELAND North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Richard Moyo has said he has made a formal appeal to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga for the Government to urgently attend to the damaged Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road.
This comes as Government through the Central Mechanical Engineering Department (CMED) has completed repairing a section of the road that was damaged by rains near Masuwe River Bridge in Victoria Falls.
The portion of the road had become untraffickable and had to be barricaded.
A Chronicle news crew yesterday observed that the section of the road has been fixed with small bridges constructed to connect storm drains and allow free passage of water.
Matabeleland North provincial roads engineer Xolani Ncube could not readily comment on progress made saying he was waiting for clearance from his superiors.
However, he recently said the rehabilitation of the portion would be completed within a fortnight.
Work has been completed although the road is still closed to traffic with vehicles using a detour created on the western side of the road.
Minister Moyo said the entire road needs urgent attention as it is in a terrible state despite the fact that it is a very busy road leading to Victoria Falls, the country’s prime tourist resort.
“We are grateful for the work that has been done on that portion of the road, but we are worried about the whole stretch from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls. I personally engaged VP Chiwenga, the provincial engineer and Minister of Transport (Felix Mhona). The road is now a death trap and we cannot have such a road given that we receive many local and international tourists daily,” he said.
Minister Moyo said he was not impressed with the response he got from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development engineers who indicated that they could not attend to the road because they had no fuel.
“They said they applied for fuel in September and they are still waiting for allocation hence they cannot fix the road. The road is now a death trap and the Ministry of Transport should do something as a matter of urgency,” said Minister Moyo.
Minister Mhona was not reachable on his mobile phone.
Tourism players and motorists in general have also expressed concern over the state of the road which they said was discouraging some tourists from visiting Victoria Falls.
The worst affected parts of the road are around Hwange town, Gwayi, Halfway and between Mbembesi River and Insuza where some of the potholes are very deep.
In some sections of the highway, the potholes cover the entire width of the road making driving a nightmare. It now takes more hours to drive along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway than when the road was in good condition. – @ncubeleon.
Online Reporter