HWANGE Local Board (HLB) says it is well on course to meet its timelines for the resuscitation of road infrastructure in its area of jurisdiction under the government’s Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).
This also comes after the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) Matabeleland North provincial technician, Engineer Enock Masocha, recently praised the local authority after touring the sites.
HLB Town Engineer Philip Nguni told the Daily News yesterday that he was satisfied with the ongoing road rehabilitation works in the coal mining town.
“We are basically on course. The only problem is that people tend to think projects like these can be done overnight. If we continue with this pace, by the time we get to the rainy season we will be done,” Nguni said.
“The roads are ready for resealing. We started the project one-and-a-half months ago, but we have covered a lot of ground. ERRP is a three-year programme and we are still to do Phase II, which entails resealing. Thereafter, we do reconstruction under Phase III.”
He added that a contractor engaged by the local authority, Enfund Construction, was at an advanced stage of completing rehabilitation of a 1,2 kilometre stretch at Chibondo medium density suburb.
“HLB has also engaged a contractor under ERRP (II). At the moment, the contractor is doing pothole patching over a stretch of 1,2 kms in Chibondo. The contractor is expected to reseal the same road,” said Nguni
The local authority was allocated $58 million under ERRP, which would be undertaken in three phases. $11 million was set aside for Phase I and the town had already received $2,2 million.
The government recently declared all national roads as a state of national disaster, leading to the promulgation of Statutory Instrument 47 of 2021 which resulted in the rolling out of the ERRP.
The programme, which will be taking place in two phases, is being spearheaded by the ministry of Transport.
Under ERRP, the government is targeting to rehabilitate 10 000 km of roads countrywide.