The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
ACTUAL construction work on the $1 billion Harare-Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway dualisation project is one of the Government’s deliverables under the 100-day target set by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo told Sunday News after a meeting in Bulawayo that work on the road was expected to start by March this year.
Dr Gumbo said engineers were already on the ground doing pre-commencement works on the Harare-Beitbridge section of the road before actual construction starts.
The Government engaged an Austrian firm, Geiger International to carry out the project under a 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) model at a cost of $998 million.
Dr Gumbo said everything else that needed to be done to pave way for the project to kick off which includes registration of national project status and formation of a company in the country had been done and what was left was for work on the ground to start.
“This is one project that is going to start within the 100 days that we have been given by his Excellency. So by March there about you will see people on the road.
“I have already said there are people on the road, the engineers, if you want to see them they are already on the road, they are surveying, they are doing designs, they have demarcated the road and set the headquarters in Masvingo.
“What you want to see are graders on the road, which you will see very soon,” he said.
Dr Gumbo said commencement of construction work on the road had been partly delayed by Zimra that refused to allow the contractor to bring in old equipment into the country.
In September it was reported that some of the equipment meant to be used for the dualisation project was stuck in Zambia as the contractor was awaiting the Government to gazette a Statutory Instrument that allows them to bring in the equipment duty free.
Dr Gumbo said because of the stance taken by Zimra, the contractor was now bringing in new equipment from China.
“Unfortunately Zimra did not approve the coming in of old equipment. This is why new equipment is now coming in. That is what also caused the delay. Zimra could not accept the company to bring in old equipment, because they would be tax rebates and so forth, so they said they can’t do that on old equipment.
“As I speak to you their machinery is already on the way coming from China, brand new machinery coming into the country to start the work,” he said.
Dr Gumbo added, “I am happy to say that the funds have been sourced for the road.
“The precedence which precedes any agreement, the negotiations that take place are the ones that take time.
“Work has already started on the Harare-Beitbridge section. It started on the 4th of July 2017. It started with designs, and surveys. So as we speak now, the designers and surveyors are on the ground, which is critical for any project of this magnitude.”
The dualisation of the highway is expected to reduce carnage and increase the flow of goods and tourists in and outside the country.
Preliminary indications are that the dualisation project will take an estimated three years to complete.
The project will be carried out in phases with the first phase covering the Beitbridge-Harare highway.
The second phase will cover the Harare-Chirundu stretch. — @irielyan
