A KR187 million project to improve roads in two of Zambia’s busiest cities has been given the seal of approval by the Government.
A total of 40.9 kilometres of road in Ndola and Kitwe on the copper belt are to be reconstructed and upgraded as part of the Link Zambia-8,000 road project launched by President Michael Sata last year.
The project was announced during the signing of contracts with Ng’andu Consulting Limited and Bicon Zambia Limited by the Local Government Permanent Secretary Bernard Namchila.
Work is expected to start within 28 days and will including the designing and constructing of drainage systems and concrete slabs on household access road and road junctions.
Ng’gandu Consulting Limited will be responsible for designing and constructing 12 selected urban road in Kitwe and has engaged the services of China Geo-Engineering Corporation as the main contractor.
Bicon Zambia Limited will similarly be involved in designing and constructing another 12 selected urban roads in Ndola. It has signed up two main contractors to carry out the works, Jizan Construction and Copperfield Mining Service.
The Kitwe project will upgrade 20 kilometres of roads to bituminous standard at a total cost of KR118.3bllion while the Ndola project will cost KR69.3 billion.
The two main sub-contractors hired are Crocodile Construction Limited and Continental Road Limited.
Mr Namachila said: “The consultants have the overall and primary responsibility for all works and are specifically required to undertake road work designs to the required and approved engineering standard and to also closely supervise the contractors to ensure that they adhere to the engineering designs and specifications.”
He added that the Government had decided to work on the urban roads in the two cities because they had deteriorated to unacceptable standards while in some cases the road designs required upgrading to meet modern standards.
