The Road Development Agency – RDA has disclosed that works on 31 selected and re-scoped road projects have resumed and are expected to be completed within the period of 18 months.
Housing and Infrastructure Minister Vincent Mwale recently announced that government has reduced the allocation of funding for 31 road projects across the country from K16 billion to K9.5 billion due to challenges of funding.
RDA Corporate Communications Manager Masuzyo Ndhlovu disclosed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that the road project’s restructuring involved re-scoping from upgrading to bituminous standards to construction of all-weather gravel standard roads.
He said among the roads to be re-scoped include Petauke and Chilingozi road which is divided into two lots of 118Km stretch and 132 Km reaching as far as Mambwe. Ndhlovu added that other roads to be worked on include those from Chipata to Chadiza and those heading to Vubwi in Eastern Province.
Ndhlovu said the 31 road projects which span across the 10 provinces of Zambia have already undergone down scaling through contract re-negotiations and variation. “Most of the works on these roads were stalled but now, they have started and these will be all weather gravel roads,” He said.
On the progress of road tolling program which is now a key financing option for future road construction and maintenance, the RDA communications Head disclosed to ZBT that the Musokotwane toll plaza as you enter or exit Livingstone is at 90 percent completion state and only remaining with fitting of equipment and booths, hence once this is installed the project is scheduled to be in operational within this year.
