By Vumani Mthiyane
The government has promised to complete the tarring of the 60km Gwanda-Maphisa road on a year to year basis with the project set to take about six years, CITE has established.
Matabeleland South Provincial Roads Engineer, Mangisi Nkomo confirmed the development.
Currently, the road rehabilitation has resumed and government has contracted a private contractor to complete the first phase of tarring 10km from Bar 20 turn off to Konongwe area at a cost of USD$2 808 265.
“The Ministry of Transport plans to do at least 10km per year on Gwanda-Maphisa Road. The current existing gravel road is 58.6km but the new design is 60km,” explained the engineer Nkomo.
“Works commenced in November 2021 and are scheduled for completion on or before 11 May 2022.”
Eng Nkomo added: “The project was awarded to the contractor ZADA Construction .The contractor is presently on the ground and have all the necessary equipment to undertake the works. Progress to date is at 21%.
However, progress has been greatly affected by the rains we received in the period of December 2021 and January 2022 ,nevertheless the rains seem to have been on halt and we expecting the contractor to catch up on their program since they are behind schedule.”
Due to the poor state of the road, motorists are forced to use the longer route to travel to Maphisa or Gwanda.
Instead of driving through the 60km rocky road, motorists go via Bulawayo which is a distance of 464 km to avoid wear and tear of their vehicles.
