Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Charles Milupi says government decided to cancel the contract for the construction of the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway because it has no money to fund the project.
Milupi said the project would now be undertaken by the private sector under the Private Public Partnership-PPP Act, which will not cost government anything adding that it was too expensive for government to continue with the works under the previous contract.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Milupi said government took time to negotiate the concession as everything is being done with transparency and the ministry will announce the outcome of the concessions before construction works resume.
“On this particular one even if we were doing it with our own money, we would save about USD700,000 000, that would be equivalent to the first euro bond saved on one project, that shows how expensive things were given out”, he said.
He noted that government could not disclose when exactly the project will resume, as discussions are underway.
The Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway whose works are at 15% was on the list of cancelled loan financed projects and government has already engaged respective contractors to complete formalities for cancellation of work contracts for the dual carriageway among other listed projects.
The cancelled contract was on a loan amount of USD187,000,000.00 with the amount disbursed at USD30,000,000.00 and the undisbursed amount being cancelled at USD157,000,000.00
