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Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE construction of the dualised Harare-Beitbridge-Chirundu highway is expected to start next month, with the contractor in the country to do interviews and draw contracts with local sub-contractors and suppliers for the project, a Cabinet Minister has confirmed.
The interviews and the envisaged sub-contracts are in fulfilment of the 40 percent project value pledge made by Geiger International to local companies during the groundbreaking ceremony in May. Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Dr Joram Gumbo told Sunday News in an interview on Friday that the main contractor from Austria Geiger International was in the country with his team of engineers to conduct interviews and possibly draw contracts with local suppliers and sub-contractors before commencement of the work at the beginning of next month. He said he was aware that the project’s commencement had witnessed so many postponements but assured the nation that they would not allow any further reschedule of the time beyond August.
“Progress on the project will start soon, most certainly next month. For now the contractor and his team of engineers are in the country where they will be holding interviews and draw contracts with local contractors and suppliers. After that process I think next month work on the project will start. It will start from where the project was launched and it will be work in progress until it is complete. We wish to stick to the set timeframes of not more than three years,” said Dr Gumbo.
He said it was the Government’s thrust to improve the country’s road network and bring efficiency in the communication sector. He admitted that most of the country’s roads were in bad shape and were worsened by the cyclone induced rains that pounded the country early this year.
The rains, he said, made some of the roads completely impassable and isolated certain areas from the rest of the country.
The Government signed agreements in November last year with Austrian contractor Geiger International for the $984 million project.
President Mugabe led the groundbreaking ceremony at Chaka Business Centre in Chirumhanzu in the Midlands Province in May paving way for the commencement of the construction of a dualised road from Beitbridge to Chirundu via Harare. It was at the function where Geiger International vice-chairman Mr Eric Geiger pledged to sub-contract 40 percent of the value of the project to local companies.
The highway is Zimbabwe’s busiest and most economically significant. It is part of the North-South Corridor that directly links landlocked Zimbabwe and Zambia to the Indian Ocean ports of Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa.
The project is expected to take up to three years and will be carried out in phases. The road will be done under a Public Private Partnership/Build Operate and Transfer model. The Beitbridge highway has been in use for over 56 years, way beyond its designated lifespan of 20 years.
Dr Gumbo said efforts to rehabilitate the highway, whose state had so far claimed many lives in traffic accidents, have been held back by lack of funds among other things. Government initially awarded the contract to ZimHighways, a consortium of 14 firms that included Murray & Roberts, Costain Africa, Kuchi Building Construction, Tarcon, Bitcon, Joina Development Company and Southland Engineers in 2003 but the project never took off.
The Government accused the contractors of failing to put up the money for the project, while ZimHighways accused Government officials of demanding bribes.
The issue spilled to the courts after Government announced plans to hand the project to a new contractor citing ZimHighways’ failure to honour the agreement and start the project. The consortium took the Government to court. It only dropped its lawsuit in 2015, on condition that the consortium members would be sub-contracted for the project. This finally allowed the Government to float a new tender that was awarded to Geiger International.
Online Reporter