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Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Reporter
THE Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has embarked on several mega projects as part of implementing the 10-Point Plan laid out by President Mugabe in his State of the Nation Address last week.

The ministry’s permanent secretary Mr Munesu Munodawafa told The Herald on Wednesday that the 10-Point Plan would see the ministry refocusing and addressing strategic plans aimed at improving trade and linkages in the region.

Among the projects, Mr Munodawafa said, they had almost completed the construction of the Walvis Bay Dry Port in Namibia to receive goods using sea transportation.

He said Government was also looking at introducing another regional flight and undertaking the construction of various road and rail projects by the end of next year.

“We have been working on a number of projects in the context of Zim-Asset and the 10-Point Plan has now assisted us in refocusing our mandate,” he said.

“We are working on the construction of the Walvis Bay Dry Port after we were allocated a 19 490 square-metre piece of land and, by November this year, the project will be completed.”

Mr Munodawafa said of late, Walvis Bay had become a strategic gateway in the region in addition to Beira in Mozambique and Durban in South Africa. On the growth of the aviation industry, Mr Munodawafa said, the ministry had worked to introduce an additional flight that would start operating soon.

The new airline — Fast Jet Zimbabwe — would be servicing regional routes among them Tanzania, South Africa and the DRC. “The introduction of an additional airline Fly Africa last year, which is complementing Air Zimbabwe impacted both foreign and regional travels,” he said.

“Another airline called Fast Jet Zimbabwe is coming and it has now been registered.”

Mr Munodawafa said the airline would be operating under a franchise with 51 percent owned locally. He said the Ministry was targeting the completion of the rehabilitation of Victoria Falls International Airport by November. Plans were also in place to construct major highways and the additional 10 tollgates that were gazetted recently.

Mr Munodawafa said their priority was on the major highways such as Beitbridge-Chirundu-Harare, Harare-Nyamapanda and Bulawayo-Victoria Falls. He said of the 90 000km of roads in the country, the ministry was targeting to gravel all the 77 000km rural roads by the end of next year.

Commenting on the status of railway transportation, Mr Munodawafa said two Chinese investors were carrying out feasibility studies on the construction of the Harare-Chitungwiza railway line.