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Senior Reporter 

THE rehabilitation of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway has reached another milestone with 400km, almost 70 percent of the 580km stretch, now completed and opened to traffic while contractors are working ahead of schedule on one of the largest infrastructure developments since the advent of the Second Republic.

While there are many infrastructure development projects across the country, the rehabilitation of the Harare-Beitbridge highway and modernisation of the Beitbridge Border Post to bring in efficient systems aimed at reducing or eliminating delays, are the two signature projects of President Mnangagwa’s administration.

The Beitbridge Border Post has already been commissioned by the President and users of arguably the busiest land border in the SADC region commended the speed with which they were being cleared, and the ease of clearance over the festive period.

Posting on its Twitter handle last Wednesday, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development said: “Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Road update: 400km now opened to traffic. Increase in kilometres of good road network infrastructure.” 

Efforts to get further comment from the acting Director, Roads Construction and Maintenance in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Engineer Jarawani Kangara, were unsuccessful yesterday but he recently said most of the contractors were ahead of schedule and was confident that they would meet their targets.

The rehabilitation, effectively the rebuilding, of the Chirundu-Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway, had been mooted for a long time as the work done in the 1960s was definitely in need of being drastically improved to cope with traffic that was inconceivable then.

A foreign tender for the reconstruction was awarded to an Austrian firm, Geiger International, with a ground-breaking ceremony held in May 2017, under the First Republic, to mark the beginning of works at the cost of US$2,7 billion.

However, nothing happened on the ground. So among the early moves of the Second Republic was to cancel the foreign tender in 2018 and then engage local companies to rehabilitate the highway. 

Five local companies were contracted to undertake the work: Tensor Systems, Masimba Holdings, Fossil Contracting, Exodus & Company, and Bitumen World.

The scope of the project involves dualisation, upgrading and tolling of the highway.

The entire north-south corridor has been divided into three sections: the 580km Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway together with eight toll plazas, the 342km Harare-Chirundu highway with six toll plazas, and the 59km Harare Ring Road with three toll plazas. These tolls are what pay for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the road.

Government has also come up with the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2) not only to focus on major highways, but also those roads in suburbs of towns and cities that have been abandoned by opposition-run councils over the years, leaving motorists to navigate potholes and increasing the cost of owning and operating vehicles.

Over 2 000km of roads have been re-gravelled, while 6 627,9km have been graded, with 701 drainage structures constructed or repaired and 184 wash-aways reclaimed.

Across the country, 4 491,5km of drains have been opened while 6 141,2km of verges have been cleared.

Progress continues to be made on the patching of potholes, with 4 794,8km of road having been attended to.

President Mnangagwa recently urged people, especially in urban areas, to vote out incompetent opposition councillors and legislators and bring in those from Zanu PF who are pushed by the party to deliver for the people.

Zanu PF, led by President Mnangagwa, has been on a drive to improve infrastructure across the country.

Dams, roads, bridges, hospitals, clinics and schools have been constructed while irrigation schemes that stopped operating several years ago, have been resuscitated by President Mnangagwa’s administration.

The President has said that with more economic activities now taking place across the country, Zimbabweans are guaranteed a massive improvement in their living standards in line with Vision 2030 of an empowered and prosperous upper middle income society.