TRANSPORT minister Joram Gumbo has said the widening of the Beitbridge-Chirundu highway could push costs beyond the quoted $2,7 billion due to interest charges demanded by project financiers.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Gumbo said they had estimated costs of the project based on surveying and sampling of soils along the road, forecasting that $2,7 billion was needed for the 897km stretch.
“It cost about $1,6 million to construct a kilometre of road and the Beitbridge-Chirundu Road is about 1 000km and now you can see what I am talking about and we should include the Harare ring road,” he told journalists in Harare yesterday.
“We have not given you the cost of the road, we have given you an estimate of the road as expressed by the interested people, when they do their costing they will also be looking at the interests they will charge.” Gumbo also said government will use a loan to fund construction of a section of the Harare-Chirundu Road, which could push the costs up.
“The Beitbrigde-Harare Road will be done on a private-public partnership basis, then the one from Harare to Chirundu will be done on loan financing. What is going to happen now is that we have signed the framework agreement, we are now going into the proper nitty-gritty, so the cost of the road is not there yet,” he said.
