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Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
PRESIDENT Mugabe will next week commission the construction and dualisation of the Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway after Government awarded tenders to an Austrian construction company, Geiger Pvt Ltd and Chinese company, China Harbour.

In an interview on the sidelines of Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) national drivers’ awards, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo said officials from the two companies were already in the country and were in negotiations with Government on the implementation strategy.

Dr Gumbo said the companies were required to give a stipulated percentage of work to local companies.

He said work on the 897km stretch from Chirundu to Beitbridge could gobble an estimated $2,7 billion and is expected to be completed within the next three years.

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“The first kilometres from Beitbridge Border Post were awarded to local companies and work has already started. They are resurfacing and widening the road. For the dualisation we have awarded the contracts to Austrian construction company, Geiger (Pvt) Ltd and Chinese company, China Harbour. They are already in the country and we have started negotiations with them as to find out what percentage of the work that they are going to give to our locals and also the implementation process. We are discussing and in the first week of August we are going to be commissioning the construction of this road and there will be a ground-breaking ceremony which President Mugabe will officiate.

“We are prioritising this road as Government because it is the busiest road in Southern Africa and Beitbridge Border Post is the busiest post in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

Dr Gumbo said the stretch would be divided into eight segments to speed up the dualisation process.

“We will segment it into five segments between Beitbridge and Harare and three between Harare and Chirundu so that we can quickly finish the dualisation. We are going to make a ring road surrounding Harare. We are also looking forward to dualising Beitbridge-Victoria Falls and Harare-Nyamapanda. We are expecting the work to be completed in three years’ time,” he said.

The project was stalled due to a court challenge by Zim Highways Consortium, a grouping of local firms that had initially been awarded the tender in 2002 but failed to raise the required capital.

This resulted in the withdrawal of the tender.

The consortium approached the courts for relief.

The dispute between Government and the consortium was resolved last year.

The rehabilitation and dualisation of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway has been cited as one of the major projects under Government’s Zim-Asset economic turnaround blueprint.

The highway has recorded a lot of accidents due to the huge volumes of traffic.

Dualisation has been identified as a long-term solution to the problem.