State House directs RDA …to immediately rehabilitate deplorable Lumumba road

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 12:56:56 +0000

STATE House has directed the Road Development Agency (RDA) to immediately rehabilitate Lumumba road which is currently in a deplorable state.

Meanwhile, RDA has assured State House and the general public that over US$40 million has been set aside for the full rehabilitation and expansion of Lumumba Road into three lanes to prolong its life span and ease traffic flow.

Special Assistant to the President for Project Monitoring and Implementation Andrew Chellah said President Edgar Lungu was concerned with projects across Zambia and Lumumba road in particular following  public outcry over its poor state.

Speaking when he inspected the state of the 6.6 kilometer Lumumba Road yesterday, Mr Chellah said he had been directed to inspect the state of the Lumumba road following the public outcry. Mr Chellah, who was accompanied by Policy Implementation and Monitoring chief analyst Joseph Mukupa, found RDA on site patching up potholes as a short term measure while waiting for the complete rehabilitation and expansion which will commence in April 2018.

Mr Chellah however said after inspecting the road he was comforted by the fact that RDA was already on site and had assistance from AVIC International.

“These jobs ideally are supposed to be done by the council but because we are considering this as an emergency we have decided to engage RDA so that we can speed up the works because the public is being inconvenienced,” he said.

Mr Chellah said Lumumba  road being in the Heavy Industrial area a lot of money and time was being lost because of the bad state of the road.

He said the situation was urgent and directed the RDA to ensure the road was worked on and become passable within fourteen days. “The road is in a very bad state and it is because of the public outcry that we came to learn about the condition of the road,” he said.

Mr Chella said President Lungu was very concerned about the projects across Zambia including Lumumba road.

Meanwhile, RDA director for maintenance William Mulusa said over US$40 million has been set aside for the full rehabilitation and expansion of Lumumba Road into three lanes to prolong its life span and ease traffic flow. Mr Mulusa said the full rehabilitation works under the Lusaka 400 phase two project for Lumumba Road was $43 million and would be carried out by AVIC International.

He said RDA captured 3,200 square meters which will be patched up. Mr Mulusa said the RDA would patch up the 6.6 Kilometres of Lumumba Road.

He said the road would be patched up at a value of K 800,000 which would help keep the road in shape before it could be completely be overhauled.

And RDA regional manager for Lusaka Pandeki Chabala said the agency would patch up the road within 14 days and would ensure that they worked round the clock.    Mr Chabala said the RDA would ensure they put up enough road signage’s to ensure motorists and pedestrians were aware of the works