‘Road rehab boosts Mashonaland West’
Mash West Bureau
The rehabilitation and dualisation of the Harare-Chirundu Highway is set to make Mashonaland West a key transport hub linking the province to other parts of the country, Provincial Affairs Minister Mary Mliswa-Chikoka has said.
In her remarks during a ground-breaking ceremony of the project for the improvement of the northern part of the North-South Corridor along the Makuti-Chirundu Road last week, Minister Mliswa-Chikoka said the programme brought lasting solution to road carnage on the section of the road.
President Mnangagwa on Monday last week, officially launched the commencement of work on the first 6,5km of a 21km stretch along Makuti-Chirundu Road linking the country to Sadc, Comesa and East African states.
The project is being financed through a US$21 million grant from Japan and will be implemented with the support of Japanese engineers and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
“I am equally delighted at the prospect of this project in the rehabilitation and maintenance of our road network as a province, a prospect that will certainly make us a key transport hub that links our province to our great nation and, indeed, the world,” said Mliswa-Chikoka.
She applauded Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and his provincial team for road projects underway in Mashonaland West province.
“These include the ongoing dualisation works on the Harare-Beitbridge corridor. In Chegutu RDC, work has commenced on the Gokwe-Alaska route as well as the Hurungwe and Binga routes among others,” she said.
The projects, Minister Mliswa-Chikoka said, support President Mnangagwa’s vision of turning Zimbabwe into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
“As a people, we can only develop as far as our infrastructure and transport network permits and I am glad that the administration has made infrastructure development a priority and key pillar to build upon,” she said.
Minister Mliswa-Chikoka expressed her gratitude to the contractors for employing local people on the project.
“Employment creation is one of the key deliverables that this administration will be known for and we are so happy that this project will also touch Mashonaland West province’s lives through the availing of employment opportunities,” she said.
During the ground-breaking ceremony, President Mnangagwa said the project was part of Government’s thrust to develop robust and modern infrastructure which will see at least five major road projects being supported every year in each province.
He also local and foreign investors should come on board to help the Government modernise infrastructure through various models.
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