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New road designs impress Muchinga Minister
Nakonde, February 27, 2015, ZANIS…The re-construction of the US$180 million Mbala-Nakonde highway using Asphalt is progressing well and has impressed Muchinga province minister, Mwimba Malama.
Senior Road Development Agency (RDA) Engineer Manda Ndabane told the minister who inspected the project recently that the road design was of superior quality with proper structural strength to handle heavy cargo trucks.
Mr Ndabane explained that the project was initially expected to finish within three years but several reviews and variations have been made that will compel the contractor, China CMMC to complete the 171 kilometer project within four years.
He said so far the contractor had already done a 42 kilometer stretch from the Mbala side using Asphalt material.
And Provincial Minister, Mwiimba Malama observed that the Nakonde to Mbala highway was a major link to the Great Lakes region through the Port of Mpulungu and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He said it was through such important socio-economic infrastructure that connects Zambia to neighboring nations that development could be achieved.
The minister appealed to the RDA to ensure that the contractor considers working on some township roads as part of its socio-corporate responsibility.
And the RDA says due to inaccurate weather information it has been receiving it had become difficult to plan its work of patching the severely damaged Great North road from Isoka to the Nakonde border.
RDA resident Engineer for Northern and Muchinga provinces Muswala Kasambwe said the contractor has so far done 45 percent of the works that involves pothole patching.
This was after Provincial minister Mwiimba Malama observed that there was literally no road leading to the Nakonde border post despite the facility contributing much of government revenue through the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
