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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
Government has expressed satisfaction with progress on the rehabilitation and widening of the Harare-Beitbridge Highway, with contractors working on a target to have finished upgrading a combined 200 kilometres by year end.

The Harare-Beitbridge Highway, arguably the country’s busiest road, is about 560km long.

Upgrading works on the highway, a key artery for movement of both land cargo and human traffic linking regional economic powerhouse South Africa and the southern Africa regional hinterland, entails resurfacing the existing road and widening it from the current seven metres to 12,5 metres.

This should cut the number of accidents and allow speedy movement of goods and humans along the busy road, thereby contributing to aggregate national economic growth in line with Vision 2030 that seeks to grow Zimbabwe’s economy into upper middle income status.

Government awarded the tender to upgrade the highway to five local companies and segmented it into five parts, with each of the firms working on a 20km stretch.

The five are Tensor Systems, Masimba Construction, Fossil Contractors, Exodus and Company and Bitumen World.

Speaking after a tour, which started in Bubi, Matabeleland South, before proceeding to Maringire near Ngundu and ending at Mushagashe along the Masvingo-Harare Highway on Monday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza expressed satisfaction with the pace of work.

He said the firms were expected to finish upgrading the first 100km in August before starting work on the second combined 100km stretch scheduled for completion in December.

“So far I am generally happy with the work in Masvingo (province) where we have two contractors (Exodus and Company and Masimba Construction), though one of the companies (Exodus and Company) got the drawings a bit late and are behind, but I am happy that they have indicated that they will accelerate the work,” he said.

Minister Matiza said the rationale behind allowing the current contractors to continue working on the project after finishing the first stretches was to cut on costs associated with mobilisation and demobilisation of equipment.

Minister Matiza said they would not allow companies that would have failed to do their work properly to proceed to the next stage.

He said Government had put in place a fund to ensure resources continued to be available since the upgrade was of strategic national importance.

Masimba Construction manager for the project Mr Thomas Makwangudze said work was going on well with set targets achievable, though he decried challenges associated with delays in releasing funds and the Covid-19 lockdown.

The company has been forced to trim its workforce by 50 percent in line with Government regulations.