Beitbridge-Bulawayo highway to be dualised

Government is expected to announce the winning bidder for the dualisation of Beitbridge -Harare and Harare-Chirundu highways in the next two weeks after which work on the massive projects will start. The $2 billion project is in line with the 10 point plan enunciated by President Mugabe in his State of the Nation Address in August.

Several other road projects are on the cards, including the dualisation of the Harare-Nyamapanda highway and Beitbridge-Bulawayo and Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highways.

Government described the two roads as major gateways connecting Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa.

Speaking to journalists after completing the first leg of countrywide tour to assess the state of the country's roads on Saturday, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joram Gumbo, said Government was prioritising infrastructure development as it dovetailed with Zim-Asset's target of creating 2, 2 million jobs by 2018.

The winning company for Beitbridge-Harare and Harare -Chirundu highways would be asked to subcontract local companies to do at least 40 percent of the work.

Minister Gumbo said all stakeholders including the Office of the President and Cabinet and Ministry of Finance and Economic Development vetted all the 12 bids submitted by various companies and only three were now under consideration.

"Beitbridge-Chirundu Road is a priority for the Ministry and His Excellency the President is eager to see to it that we start work on this road which was delayed because of the wrangle that was there between the Ministry and a contractor — ZimHighways," he said.

"We are at the moment narrowing the list (of bidders) from about 12 and we are now left with three companies, which we are considering now.

"In a very short space of time we will announce the winner. There are many things to consider. We want companies that will also have local companies working on these roads.

"There is also plan to work on the Beitbridge-Gwanda through Bulawayo to Victoria Falls road and the Harare-Nyamapanda Road. We want to see to it that all these roads refurbished because they bring in a lot of money. They connect Central Africa and East Africa."

He said the country's roads in the three provinces that he had toured so far were in bad shape and required urgent attention.

Minister Gumbo has so far visited the Bindura-Matepatepa Road (Mashonaland Central) Mutare-Forbes Border Post Road (Manicaland) and Masvingo-Kapota Road (Masvingo).

Said Minister Gumbo: "Most rural roads are in a bad state. We might be able to do something before the rains comes.

"I am going to sit down with the Zimbabwe National Road Administration to come up with a work plan to rehabilitate some of the roads in the three provinces that I have already covered."

He said efforts were being made to raise more funds by ensuring that motorists paid for vehicle licensing, adding that Zinara had purchased compliance vehicles that would be patrolling the roads to detect unlicensed vehicles.

Zinara board chairman Mr Albert Mugabe, who is accompanying Minister Gumbo on the tour, urged local authorities to properly use the road fund.

"What we want is for local authorities to use road fund for what it is intended for," he said.

"The cake is small, but as we get more funds we will try to increase the disbursements."

Mr Mugabe said they would also work on modalities to ensure that the disbursements were made early before the rains.