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The original scope of the project entailed widening of the highway from Plumtree to Mutare, but at President Mugabe’s request, it was expanded to include the dualisation of the highway from Bulawayo to Harare.
In an interview during an assessment tour of the rehabilitation programme in Fairbridge along the Bulawayo-Harare highway yesterday, Minister Goche said progress was too slow.
Minister Goche was not amused when he found workers of Infralink seated and doing nothing at the site at about 3pm.
The workers were reluctant to explain to him why they were not working, saying they were not authorised to explain their operations.
The workers then phoned their boss to come and meet the Minister, but he did not turn up until Minister Goche left at about 4.40pm.
“I am not happy. I thought there would be much progress but I found them working on the same area that they were working on about three weeks ago,” said Minister Goche.
“I do not know what the constraints are and the workers are refusing to explain. I will talk to their director, Mr Richard Evans, and find out what the problem is.”
He said it was important for people to see progress on the roads to avoid a situation whereby people would start complaining.
“We need to move faster. I need to see progress and people need to see growth and development. I am disappointed because this means that workers are being paid for sitting and doing nothing.
“The workers who are doing the road widening programme along the Harare-Ruwa highway are actually moving faster yet these people in Bulawayo are still doing rehabilitation at the same spot,” said Minister Goche.
He said his ministry was working on securing extra funding for the dualisation of roads, which he said would cost not more than $150 million.
“The original contract was for the rehabilitation, modernisation and expansion of the existing roads, but President Mugabe felt that the project should change scope of the road and make dualisation between Bulawayo and Harare.
“We are still working on the funding and we might need an additional $150 million on top of the $206 million that was initially needed,” said Minister Goche.
He said he was in South Africa with the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti and met officials of the financier, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to work on modalities of additional funding.
“The negotiations are still going on but we have also looked at the way our revenue is coming in and I think we can manage to work on the project.
“We will soon be bringing in extra equipment for dualisation,” said Minister Goche.
He said the rehabilitation of the road, which is expected to take a period of three to five years, would allow free flow of traffic with less congestion and faster transportation of goods.
The new road would be resurfaced to become the first modern highway in Zimbabwe conforming to the Sadc protocols.
The highway will have nine world class toll plazas to recoup money used during construction.
The Infralink Project is the largest monetary investment into a single infrastructural development in the past 12 years in the country.
Online Reporter