Minister of Local Government Charles Banda has announced that the commissioning date for the Makeni flyover bridge which is being constructed at a cost of US$13 million has been set for 14 April 2020.
Makeni flyover bridge is among the four fly over bridges being constructed in the greater city of Lusaka under the Lusaka decongestion project by an Indian Company, AFCONS infrastructure Ltd.
Government had in April 2019 contracted India’s Afcons ltd to construct filter-road and bridges in Lusaka to ease traffic congestions in the city. The traffic congestion in Lusaka had built up and led to city residents and commercial activities being hampered as more time was being spent in traffic than doing the actual work.
Some psychologists had even attributed the levels of stress and generally higher levels of frustrations that are expressed on various fora by some Lusaka residents as being attributed some extent, to burn out experienced when motorists and residents transit to and from home to work or business places.
Speaking when the local government minister toured the works at the Makeni flyover bridge on March 20, 2020, attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, AFCONS project manager Subrata Brandyopahyay disclosed that the bridge is 95% complete and assured that it will be fully completed in the first week of April to leave room for the commissioning date, set for 14th April, 2020.
Subrata has since expressed optimism that the company will soon complete the remaining bridges in the city as works are going on smoothly with no challenges experienced and that no accidents have been recorded in terms of injuries or death among employees.
The Minister has in this vein commended the contractor for speeding up the works ahead of schedule and for the quality works demonstrated, saying it will go a long way in decongesting traffic in Lusaka and will add a lot to the beauty and quality of life to the city as far as modernization is concerned.
Banda further announced that the remaining bridges which are, Arcades flyover bridge, is planned to be commissioned in June this year 2020, while the Munali flyover bridge will be commissioned in September, also this year 2020 respectively.
“I would like to commend AFCONS for speeding up the works, this project was supposed to go as far as September next year but the contractor has put in a lot of efforts to ensure that they are ahead of schedule, which is almost a year ahead and this will give government a lot of time to plan for phase two because this is only phase one of the project,” He added.
