‘Bulawayo-Plumtree road 95% complete’

Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Obert Mpofu yesterday said the 828 km-Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree road rehabilitation is 95% complete.

The first phase was to rehabilitate, operate and transfer – a contract covering one year, targeting the 801,5km-Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree and the Harare-Mutare roads.

In his remarks at an event to welcome the visiting Ghanaian minister of Roads and Highways Alhaji Inusah in Harare, Mpofu said Zimbabwe and Ghana transport and road infrastructure were similar.

“Ghana is in a period of expanding road networks just as we are doing here. We have a lot of common interests,” Mpofu said.

“This presents a lot of areas for possible co-operation.”

Alhaji is leading a team which is on a fact finding mission from Ghana to inspect Group Five projects in Zimbabwe, with the first stop being in South Africa, in a bid to gauge their ability to handle major roads construction ability.

“Group Five have done similar projects in Zimbabwe and the continent. We can recommend them to any client in Africa. The project they have been working on in Zimbabwe (Plumtree-Bulawayo road) is 95% complete,” he said.

Civil works on the $206 million Plumtree-Mutare road rehabilitation project began in 2011.

Group Five projects director, Ham Coetzee said the company rehabilitating the Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree and the Harare-Mutare roads has targeted the project to be complete by December this year.

The two strategic arteries provide linkages to cross-border corridors and the deal was expected to cost $257 800 per kilometre.

The $200m project is being bankrolled by the Development Bank of South Africa. The Zimbabwe Mail