The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has blamed the failure to meet deadlines on the construction of the multi-million dollar Egodini Mall on the dire economic situation in the country.
The local authority entered into a partnership with a South African civil engineering firm Terracotta Private Limited and the main contractor another South African construction company, Liviero Group, to develop a $60 million state-of-the-art Egodini Mall and Intermodal Public Transport Interchange in Bulawayo.
However, the project has missed timelines with the first phase which was expected to be completed at the end of 2019 still yet to be completed.
In his New Year address, Wednesday, Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni said most of the city`s capital projects were affected by the economic situation prevailing in the country.
“Implementation of capital projects as well as maintenance of council infrastructure was affected by the unstable economic environment and pricing regimes. Other persistent challenges affecting service delivery effectiveness included inadequate manpower, limited and obsolete plant, equipment and vehicles, erratic fuel and electricity supply and water shortages due to climate change induced drought. The change in the macro-economic environment negatively impacted on the completion of various projects.
“One of the projects affected was the Basch street terminus (Egodini mall) and phase 1 of the project is now anticipated to be completed either at the end of quarter 1 (one) of 2020 or beginning of quarter 2 (two) of 2020. The prevailing inflationary environment and increase in interest rates further affected the completion of the transportation hub. Despite the highlighted challenges, there was progress in the project with 90 direct employment opportunities to local residents,” the Mayor said.
Once complete, the mall would have 50 shopping centres, a bus terminal building, commuter omnibus bay and modern informal traders’ bays with storage counters as well as taxi association offices.
