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Zimbabwe's Mugabe commissions upgrade project of main truck road

Xinhua, May 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday commissioned the dualization of one of Southern Africa's main trunk roads - the 900 km Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place at Chaka Business Center - 222 km from Harare on the Masvingo highway and near the site where 31 people died after the bus they were travelling in side-swiped with a haulage truck and caught fire in April.

Initial work will be done on the Beitbridge-Harare component of the road while an announcement would be made in due course on when work on the Harare-Chirundu highway would begin.

China domiciled Austrian firm Geiger International will upgrade the Beitbridge-Harare segment at a cost of 998 million U.S. dollars under a 25 year Build, Operate and Transfer model.

The project will be done over three years and will have at least 37 new two lane bridges and eight tollgates.

The Harare-Chirundu segment - including the Harare Drive ring road - will be done under a loan financing model and private sector investment contributed by China Harbour Engineering Company.

The highway starts in Beitbridge in the south on the border with South Africa, passes through Masvingo (290 km) and Harare (290 km), and extends to Chirundu to the north on the border with Zambia (352 km).

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, President Robert Mugabe hailed the project and said it would act as a springboard for economic development in the country, the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation quoted him as saying.

Mugabe urged high quality work that meets international standards, noting that the highway is the busiest in the country and links South Africa and other countries in the SADC region, East and Central Africa.

The president blamed economic sanctions imposed on the country by Britain and her allies for stalling major infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe, and called on Zimbabweans to remain resilient, united in the development of the country.

He warned local suppliers against overcharging so that they can be considered for future projects.

Eric Geiger, the vice chairman of Geiger International said the company was happy to undertake the project after six years of negotiations.

He said 40 percent of the work will be undertaken by Zimbabweans to give jobs to local companies. Endit