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Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter
SOME of the new roads linking Harare and the new Parliament Building in Mount Hampden, currently under construction, will be completed within the next three weeks, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Felix Mhona, has said.
The minister said this while responding to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday on what Government was doing to address congestion in Harare, some of which is due to the ongoing roads construction and rehabilitation programme.
Zimbabwe will host the Sadc Summit in August at the new Parliament and Government has embarked on a drive to rehabilitate and construct roads leading to the venue.
“I want to start by apologising to the citizenry for the inconvenience that they are witnessing. However, it is just like a pregnant mother. The pain can be endured for nine months and thereafter you celebrate and precisely, this is the period that we are in as a country and I want to say instead of having detours, we can count from now, in three weeks’ time or earlier, we will be opening some of the roads.”
“So, we are going to be moving traffic to the new roads and then attend even to the ancillary roads that were damaged during the rehabilitation of our major roads. The good news for the City of Harare is that the roads that we are currently using, we will be attending to those soon after opening the sections, in particular Lomagundi (Nemakonde).
“We will be opening from Harare Drive intersection, Nemakonde, which is Lomagundi and Harare Drive towards (Westgate) roundabout which we will open in two weeks’ time.
“We will also open from Harare Drive towards Bindura at the same time again, meaning that we will then be using the new section and we will be administering the detours that we were working on,” Minister Mhona said. On Wednesday, President Mnangagwa conducted an aerial tour to monitor the progress of construction works at the Mt Hampden Conference Centre, roads and Presidential Villa sites, which are being constructed ahead of the Sadc Summit and said he was confident that Zimbabwe would host a successful event.
Further, he said he did not doubt that construction works would be completed on time.
“I am satisfied that they are going to complete the construction of villas which are meant to facilitate accommodation for Heads of State.
“I am told that by the end of July, early August, everything will have been completed and I have no doubt that we will accomplish the task. Yes, I am very happy that my vision is actualising slowly . . . I am so happy,” the President said.
Zimbabwe, said President Mnangagwa, was working flat out to host the regional bloc’s Heads of State in an “environment never seen before”.
Online Reporter