Govt to resume works on Lusaka-Mongu road

Fri, 16 Dec 2016 11:00:04 +0000

By Mailesi Banda

GOVERNMENT will continue with the rehabilitation of the M9 road which links Lusaka to the Western Province after the project was abandoned by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA),” said permanent secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development, Charles Mushota.

The permanent secretary said after the project had been abandoned by DANIDA, the 2017 Budget had allocated money for the completion of the road.

Mr. Mushota said contractors were working on the proposal for submission to the Ministry of Finance to enable them release the funds.

Mr. Mushota explained that a contract had been signed for the stretch between Mongu and Kalabo and the one between Mongu and  Limulunga. He said the stretch was supposed to be funded by the loan acquired from China but it had not been sufficient. “We were supposed to have funded the Mongu-Kalabo road  from the loan acquired from China but it has run out;  we are looking for finances to ensure this is done as the contractors and contracts are there, we are just waiting for the completion of the loan,“ he said.

He said that for the Kasempa-Kaoma road there were plans of constructing it through contractor finance to aid direct connection of North Western and Western provinces.

“We need to work on the Kasempa-Kaoma road to connect the North-Western and Western provinces to increase economic growth to the two provinces and promote the moving of goods and services over a reduced distance,’’ he said.

He said that the road from Katima Mulilo to Lusaka will be divided into stretches that will be worked on over a period of time.

The road network is part of the Link Zambia 8,000 – a project expected to create about 8,000km stretch of road network.