The contractor tasked with undertaking maintenance works on the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway, Bitumen World Private Limited, says the work would likely be completed within 11 months.
Like the majority of Zimbabwe’s highways, the 400km Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway is badly damaged due to years of neglect.
Bitumen World’s chief executive officer, Andre Zietsman, told the Chronicle that they will be filling up potholes and doing some reconstruction work from Hwange to Victoria Falls.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the ZANU PF star rally at Ndangababi Primary School in Hwange East constituency last week. Said Zietsman:
Our projection is to wrap up the emergency works in roughly about 11 months.
We will be filling up potholes and doing some reconstruction work outside Hwange town towards Victoria Falls because there are some sections there that have completely degenerated.
He said his company was not given a contract to reconstruct the entire highway but theirs was only on emergency works.
Just over a week ago, Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) CEO Nkosinathi Ncube apologised to pertinent partners for the deplorable state of the road.
Ncube attributed the damage to the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway to haulage trucks that transport heavy cargo from the coal mines in Hwange, saying that the loads should have been transported by rail.
He also said that sustained maintenance of such infrastructure is a challenge due to the funding gap linked to the limited fiscal space.
The Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway is a strategic trade route on the regional north-to-south corridor, linking Zimbabwe with South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia as well as the DRC.
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