Nkayi Road on Government radar

GOVERNMENT is seized with the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road with works expected to resume as soon as the Treasury releases funds for the project, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Theodius Chinyanga said yesterday.

The contractor is still on site awaiting the green light to resume work on one of the busiest roads in Matabeleland North.

Over 15 bus companies service the route including kombis among other transport operators.

Developing sound road infrastructure is one of the critical enablers towards achieving the National Development Strategy (NDS1), the Government’s five-year economic master plan, which spans from 2021 through to year 2025.

The Bulawayo-Nkayi Road had become untrafficable and a death trap.

So far only a stretch of about 50km has been widened and tarred over the years with the remainder of the road linking Turk Mine and Inyathi area in Bubi District up to Nkayi Centre yet to be worked on.

Under the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa, Government is scaling up rehabilitation of major roads across the country and Nkayi Road is one of them.

Government has said the upgrading of the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road is a top priority as it responds to stakeholder concern that the project has taken too long to complete after it was started in 1993 with an initial completion date set for 1999.

“We are still proceeding with the works, but the road is not immune to the funding challenges that at times face the Treasury,” said Eng Chinyanga.

Bulawayo-Nkayi Road is viewed as an economic enabler and connects Bubi, Nkayi, and Kwekwe districts.

Plans are underway to transform the Kwekwe-Nkayi-Lupane Road into a major highway that will bolster trade and commerce with a positive impact on tourism and social communication.

The feeder road is already part of the Government’s Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme whose transformation is expected to contribute towards the establishment of world-class road infrastructure in line with the country’s vision of attaining an upper middle-income economy status by 2030.

Last year, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Felix Mhona, said the Kwekwe-Nkayi-Lupane Road, which links the Midlands Province to Matabeleland North Province was critical to the national economy.

The road rehabilitation programme is said to have created at least 20 000 jobs and contributed to improved economic activities in the construction sector countrywide.

In July, while addressing a rally at Nkayi Centre, President Mnangagwa assured the nation that the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road and the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho Road among others, remain a priority under the renewed infrastructural development drive in Matabeleland North.