Story by John Nhandara
Government is continuing with the roll out of the emergency road rehabilitation programme with major highways set to get a facelift to improve the country’s road network.
Major highways such as Harare-Beitbridge, Bulawayo-Victoria Falls, Harare-Mutare, Harare-Bulawayo and Harare-Kanyemba highways have been attended to and are at various stages of rehabilitation.
The government is now shifting focus on the Bulawayo-Nkayi, Gwanda-Maphisa road, Harare-Domboshava and Harare- Acturus roads, while plans for reconstructing a stretch in Hwange along the Victoria Falls highway are at an advanced stage.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Hon Felix Mhona said, “The Harare-Domboshava road needs complete redesign and reconstruction, so some households will be affected. We are starting construction of the road on the 13th of February. For Harare-Acturus, we are in the tender stage. We are mobilising for rehabilitating Bulawayo-Nkayi. We are rehabilitating the Harare-Chirundu highway as well as modernising the border post.”
Elsewhere, scoping has been done for the construction of a 33-kilometre Christmas Bypass road in Mutare, while a new contractor for the Golden Valley-Sanyati road has been identified to replace the previous contractor who failed to meet the required standards.
Works to rehabilitate the Karoi-Binga highway have also started, while plans are also afoot for the rehabilitation of the Birchenough-Buhera road.
Hon Mhona added, ‘‘We have other roads that we are descending in like Kwekwe-Lupane-Nkayi and the Birchenough-Buhera road. For Karoi-Binga, we have already started working on the road. The previous contractor for Golden Valley Sanyati failed and we have assigned a new contractor to work on the road.’’
The country has an estimated road network of about 82 000 kilometres and most of the roads were now in a poor state, prompting the government to declare the country’s roads a state of disaster and the subsequent launch of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme.
