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into Bulawayo.
Workmen are now at Bellevue.
The 100km stretch of the road is part of the 820km highway between Plumtree and Mutare, which the Government undertook to rehabilitate at a cost of more than $200 million.
A Chronicle news crew drove along Plumtree Road on Wednesday and noticed that upgrading of the road had been completed starting from West Acre, about 30km from Bulawayo up to Plumtree Border Post. Contractors have finished marking carriageway signs and surface reflectors on the new look highway, which now has wide shoulders from Redwood to the border.
There are, however, a few stretches of the road that are still being resurfaced while between West Acre and Bellevue towards Bulawayo, preliminary resurfacing has been done. At the site of the toll plaza, workmen were busy levelling the ground.
Some were offloading bricks to be used for construction while surfacing of a detour has been completed. “We have started construction of the toll plaza as you can see people are at work. We have finished clearing the area and very soon construction will start,” said an official on the site.
The upgrading of the road started at a slow pace early this year but improved a few months ago.
In an interview in Bulawayo yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development, Mr Munesu Munodawafa, appealed to members of the public to be patient and appreciate progress made so far on the highway project.
“The public should appreciate that we had to start somewhere before upgrading the roads. There was no way we could have started with construction of toll plazas but rehabilitation of the roads has intensified because Government’s number one priority is to ensure that roads are rehabilitated for safety,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He said Government was happy with the progress made so far in both construction of toll plazas and rehabilitation of the road. “We are happy that construction of the two toll plazas we want completed before the end of the year is taking shape. As I was travelling to Bulawayo last night I saw workmen still at work at about 10pm which is the kind of commitment we want. Our target is to have at least one of these two up and running before the end of the year,” said Mr Munodawafa.
The Permanent Secretary said there was no need to worry about funding of the whole project because the Government had signed a loan agreement.
The Government signed a $206,6 million loan agreement with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) for the rehabilitation of the 820km.
This gave birth to Infralink, a joint venture company between Zimbabwe National Road Administration and Group Five of South Africa, which is working round the clock to ensure that project is completed within its 36 month time frame.
Online Reporter