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Prosper Ndlovu recently in Victoria Falls

CONSTRUCTION giant, Bitumen World (Private) Limited, has deployed three well-equipped teams to undertake intense road maintenance and rehabilitation works along the dilapidated Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway following interventions by President Mnangagwa.

The swift intervention is in response to an outcry by the motoring public and business leaders who have appealed to the Government to urgently attend to the extensive damage on the strategic road in order to restore smooth transportation.

The Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway is a strategic trade route on the regional north-to-south corridor, linking Zimbabwe with South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia as well as the DRC.

The public concern has prompted President Mnangagwa to direct that resources be immediately availed to kick-start massive rehabilitation works, and the contractor is already on the ground, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Felix Mhona, has said.

He assured delegates during the 2023 Infrastructure Summit and Expo, which was officially opened by President Mnangagwa on Friday that corrective measures were being taken to reverse the damage on the highway.

“We thank His Excellency for being a listening President. You don’t just hear but act. Last week we were inundated with calls especially from this province (Matabeleland North) complaining about the state of Victoria Falls Road, and others were saying: ‘Minister have you driven on that road yourself?” said Minister Mhona.

“I want to thank you Your Excellency in that when you directed and mandated me this last week that you wanted the road works to start progressively before you land in this particular city, and precisely this has happened.

“I want to thank you Your Excellency for the money you have given us, the contractor is now back on the road doing the work, and for this you deserve applause.”

A Chronicle news crew drove from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo at the weekend and observed workmen with their equipment and construction materials busy repairing the most damaged portions.

Major road construction works are underway just after Hwange town where Bitumen is essentially re-constructing the road on an estimated 5km stretch up to South Mining.

A detour has been created to allow temporary passage of vehicles and part of the contractor’s team was seized with the laying of gravel to minimise impact of dust on motorists.

Heavy-duty road construction machinery is on-site on the main road where grading and laying a new surface that is being reinforced with cement to enhance stability. Haulage trucks were taking turns to deliver more cement and grades of soils with workers offloading and spreading it along while others were deployed to control traffic.

One of the teams was operating near Lupane Centre patching potholes that have literally littered the close to 400km road, as well as reclaiming damaged edges that have narrowed the busy highway. Another team was stationed just after the Jotsholo turn-off doing similar works.

Along the road, the news crew encountered several scenes of breakdowns and accidents involving mainly smaller vehicles that would have failed to negotiate the potholes, especially in the face of oncoming traffic.

In one of the accident scenes near Kenmaur, a team of mining engineers from a Chinese company survived death by a whisker when the double cab they were traveling on hit the left back of a Honda Fit whose driver had applied emergency brakes to avoid the impact of a huge pothole that cut across the road, witnesses said.

This resulted in the double cab truck losing control, veering off the road, and rolling thrice. The driver reportedly sustained a fracture on the arm while one of the passengers sustained minor injuries and they were both rushed to St Luke’s Hospital, said one team member at the scene.

A visibly shaken Honda Fit driver said: “I’m lucky to be alive after this accident, the road is seriously damaged, and driving here is a nightmare.

“The damage is being worsened by the increased number of haulage trucks that mainly transport coal from different mining companies.”

During the summit, various stakeholders took turns to express the need for the Government and private sector players to work together to reclaim the country’s transport infrastructure as a key enabler to unlocking more opportunities. Tourism sector leaders complained that the state of the road was a dent to destination marketing for the country, especially the prime resort city of Victoria Falls.

There was consensus that the extensive damage incurred on major highways was largely linked to the use of haulage trucks in transporting heavy cargo amid calls to quickly revitalize the National Railways of Zimbabwe to ease the burden on roads.

Given the limited fiscal space and non-compliance in paying road user fees, policy experts suggested increased collaboration, harnessing local and regional partnerships on such projects, as well as leveraging Government’s re-engagement and engagement drive to lure long-term financing.

In line with Vision 2030, participants commended President Mnangagwa for laying out a clear vision to transform Zimbabwe including revamping the country’s infrastructure. They noted that despite the yoke of sanctions, which crippled infrastructure development projects, Zimbabwe must not lose focus but tap into diverse approaches towards modernising its critical infrastructure to ensure all places effectively contribute to economic development.

Developing a sound infrastructure, state-of-the-art transport equipment, is critical in building a resilient infrastructure, said the participants.