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Minister Joram Gumbo

The announcement of the winning tender for the dualisation of the Beitbridge-Masvingo-Harare-Chirundu highway will be made before the end of this year, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joram Gumbo has said. Minister Gumbo told New Ziana that Government plans to dualise all the country’s major roads. “We are going to dualise the Harare-Beitbridge-Masvingo-Harare-Chirundu road and also dualise Beitbridge-West Nicholson- Gwanda, Bulawayo-Victoria Falls roads; you can mention all the roads,” he said.

“Where feasibility studies have been done on the Beitbridge-Masvingo road, all the companies that have been putting their bids forward, it ranges between $1,5 billion and $2 billion including the Harare ring road,” he said. Gumbo said awarding of tenders to the successful bidder would be the first step to roll the much awaited dualisation of the country’s busiest highways.

“Very soon tenders will be awarded. We want to come up with a memorandum of understanding and announce whoever is going to be working on the Beitbridge-Masvingo-Harare- Chirundu road before the end of December. Minister Gumbo said Government is also planning to build border posts infrastructure.

“We are looking at constructing border posts at Kazungula, Plumtree, Victoria Falls, Chirundu, Nyamapanda, Forbes and Beitbridge,” he said. Harare-Chirundu highway spans 352,1km while Harare-Beitbridge road is 570km long. Deputy Minister Engineer Michael Madanha told the Senate on Thursday that three bids for the project have been submitted to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa for his consideration before announcement of the winner.

VP Mnangagwa is responsible for infrastructure development cluster under the Government’s economic blueprint.— New Ziana.