COPPERBELT Minister Elisha Matambo says the government is in a hurry to fix the road network on the Copperbelt province.
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Mr. Matambo said Copperbelt province had been given a rough deal in terms of road infrastructure development.
He said the government has since embarked on various road construction projects to fulfil some of the campaign promises made to the people of Copperbelt province.
“We are in a hurry to work on these roads as you can see we are working on the Ndola -Lusaka dual carriage way, Chibuluma road and are we almost completing the Chingola -Kasumbalesa road and will soon be launching the construction of the Mufulira-Sakania -Mukambo road” the Copperbelt minister disclosed.
He was speaking when he inspected the construction works of the H-figov road in Luanshya’s Central Business District, whose works were launched over four months ago and had stalled following contractual challenges.
This led to the Luanshya Municipal Council engaging a new contractor J.M and J Trading Limited who has since resumed construction work.
The Copperbelt Minister urged the contractor to expedite the works, calling for cost effective, timely and quality works.
And Luanshya District Commissioner Oncemore Ng’onomo expressed pleasure with the works.
Luanshya Mayor Charles Mulenga mentioned that contractual challenges had contributed to the delay in completing the work.
Mr Mulenga said “we had engaged a contractor but along the way as we were doing our due diligence we noticed that he was not capable of doing the works, that was when we cancelled the contract and we had to start the procuring process all over again which took a long way”.
He indicated that preliminary works such as scraping off the old road and unclogging of blocked drainages were done by the Zambia National Service and the council.
And the contractor Thabonga Singongo of J.M & J Traders Limited said the road works will be completed within the space of three months.
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