adminWalter Nyamukondiwa Kariba Bureau
With modern road construction technologies cutting costs and speeding up work, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development is now looking at raising private capital to push through the upgrade of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway.
This comes as work on the first 13km of the 21km stretch along the Makuti-Chirundu Highway upgrade is 58 percent complete in what is turning out to be a learning hub for local engineers on high-end road construction technology and systems.
The Japanese government extended a US$21m grant to the government of Zimbabwe for the road project aimed at improving the steep gradients on the Makuti-Chirundu section of the North-South corridor.
The project is expected to be a turning point in road construction and upgrade as the existing stretch of the road will see the application of the cement-formed asphalt stabilised-base technology, which is expected to cut costs and speed up road projects.
On its part, Government has expressed satisfaction with the quality and pace of work being undertaken on the project, which is being financed through a US$21 million grant from the Japanese Government.
Speaking during a tour of the road project in Marongora, ominously called Wafa-Wafa owing to the sharp curves and steep gradient that often lead to accidents, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza said the country was pursuing accelerated infrastructure development.
“We are in the process of putting up a package with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in addition to the normal Treasury financing.
“There is a private initiative where we want to raise private capital so that we can deploy it on this road (Harare-Chirundu Highway) and many other roads including the Beitbridge-Harare Highway.
“Alongside what we are getting from Treasury, we are also doing some innovation or financial engineering so that we can mop up the local funding, which is quiet substantial on the market,” said Minister Matiza.
The Harare-Chirundu Highway was initially budgeted at around US$900 million, but will now be lower as new technology is expected to play a key role in expediting completion of projects while minimising use of some materials.
“We are in the process of revising the budget as new technologies that are coming in make it faster and cheaper to undertake the projects,” he said.
“We are also looking at whether the project can be undertaken in phases or we do it at once. “These are the issues we are looking at pertaining to dualisation of the Harare-Chirundu Highway.”
The project was expected to start this year, but challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that Government has had to come up with a new financing model similar to that applied on the Beitbridge-Harare stretch but with a private sector financing component.
Minister Matiza said the Harare-Chirundu Highway was one of the major road projects on Government’s radar as part of a broader vision to bring the country’s infrastructure in line with economic development aspirations encapsulated in Vision 2030.
Online Reporter