The Sunday News
Melinda Ncube , Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has started working on the rehabilitation of the Bulawayo-Tsholotsho and Bulawayo-Nkayi roads in Matabeleland North province which were in a bad state.
The Bulawayo-Nkayi Road had become non trafficable and a death trap. The poor state of the roads had sparked an outcry across provinces in the wake of heavy rains in the last season, which left a trail of destruction, mainly on road infrastructure.
The poor state of the roads in Nkayi has forced public transport operators to retreat from their services due to the damage it causes to their vehicles and this has also led to the starvation of villagers as the department of social welfare was failing to deliver maize to some areas due to the bad state of the road.
In the case of Tsholotsho, transport operators now opt to use long meandering routes via Solusi Road. The rehabilitation works are part of the Government’s $33,6 billion country-wide Second Phase of the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2) that was officially launched by President Mnangagwa in April.
Speaking at the Parliament, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development Honorable Felix Mhona said Bulawayo-Tsholotsho and Bulawayo-Nkayi are some of the roads that Government was seized with.
“We want to assure that these are some of the roads that were abandoned for quite a number of years and we are now moving with speed to reconstruct the roads under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme Phase 2 (ERRP) being implemented through the Ministry. The mandate is to restore navigability of roads, some repair works are underway and progress,” said Hon Mhona.
