State House has revealed that six local and foreign companies have expressed interest in constructing a dual carriage way between Lusaka and the Copperbelt.
State House Permanent Secretary Emmanuel Chilubanama said which is expected to commence soon will be undertaken under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Mr Chilubanama said in an interview with Journalists in Lusaka that out of the six firms, two are Zambian owned but that they would wish to partner with their foreign counterparts in executing the project.
Mr Chilubanama who is also Head of Head of the Public Private Partnership construction of the dual carriageway would reduce road traffic accidents on the road and facilitate efficient movement of goods and services between Lusaka and the Copperbelt Province.
“After we evaluate these that have expressed interest then we will allow them to go and do due diligence after which a bid document will be prepared and a successful bidder will be picked to carry out the works on a PPP arrangement,” he said.
In 2012, the Road Development Agency announced that plans to upgrade the Great North Road to dual carriage way from Lusaka
to the Copperbelt had reached an advanced stage.
In a notice published in the media, the RDA said that it would by February 28, 2013 be awarding the contract to the preferred bidder to undertake the project.
In October 2012, the RDA had invited companies to provide consulting services for the techno-economic study, detailed engineering design and tender documents in preparation for the upgrading to dual carriage way of 210km from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi.
The tendering documents that were closed in November 2012 had since been evaluated and the contract was to be awarded by February 28 2013.
Toll gates!!! Wow
How much are the motorists charged?
The question should be how much is banked in the dry PF government accounts, and how much goes into pockets of Toll attendants?
However, the project is very welcome but, as serious developing country, we should now graduate from building toy-roads to Expressways with full amenities like emergency phones on the highways, cafe stations, say every 60 kms for motorists and passengers’ relif, toll gates etc. RDA should know what I am talking about.
52 years after independence our local firms still need to partner with foreign firms to execute a project
Shameful indeed
Does Lusaka Times have any competent editors? Their articles are mostly poorly written , full of typos and grammatical errors. Remember, you have an international audience, so try and project a professional image.
A couple of weeks ago, I drove from Ndola to Lusaka and back. I paid K10 between Ndola and Kapiri Mposhi, and another K10 between Kapiri Mposhi and Kabwe. On my way back, I paid K10 between Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi, and another K10 between Kapiri Mposhi and Ndola. So all is all, in a round trip between Ndola and Lusaka, I paid K40; that’s on a single small BMW car.
I don’t know how much trucks are paying. But I think, they are making enough money to be able to carry out this project.
Use the money wisely guys. Start this project before the 11th of August please, so that the next new government of HH and UPND does not change plans. They can at least finish this project and implement others as well.
@1.2 god’s creation. DON’T OVERRATE RDA. THEY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HOW PROPER MODERN ROAD IS SUPPOSED TO BE DESIGNED. IF THEY DID, ALL THESE NEW ROADS COULD HAVE HAD ALL THOSE ATTRIBUTES (AND MORE) YOU LISTED. NIBAMBULI, BIG TIME. JUST WAIT AND SEE WHEN THEY START CONSTRUCTING THE SAME ROAD. A ROAD COSTING USD$1MILLION PER KM SHOULD REALLY BE COMPARED TO ANY ROAD IN SWITZERLAND. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OR READ A ROAD COSTING THAT MUCH HERE. SO, IT MUST BE A PROPER ROAD IF IT IS COSTING THAT MUCH.
You Zambians sometimes you must stop and think before you put your shape pens on paper to sign.. Zambia needs a lot of revenue to finance its development and this money can come from ventures such as tolling vehicles. Now you want to give this lucrative business to foreigners who will be taking the money back to their countries and hence keeping pressure on the Zambian Kwacha just like what these Shoprite, pick and pay etc chain stores are doing. Please you thieves let the Road tolling be for Zambians.
How about a thought on rehabilitating the hospitals to provide better care for road accident victims from road accidents from all these new roads
Most people in accidents in Zambia die because of lack of first aid care, some are even disabled for life in wheel chairs because of poor handling for victims…by now we should have invested in Ambulance Service to cover highways.
@3 HOSPITALS, CLINICS AND OTHER HEALTH INSTITUTIONS DO NOT FALL UNDER THE MINISTRY OF WORKS AND FIMO FIMO. MOREOVER, IT SEEMS YOU HAVE BEEN SLEEPING QUITE A LOT FOR NOT TO HAVE READ ABOUT THE HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CENTRES THAT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED. DON’T JUST BE PROUD OF OTHER COUNTRIES’ DEVELOPMENTS UKO MUPULILA KWABENE. APPRECIATE AND BE HAPPY OF THE DEVELOPMENTS HAPPENING IN YOUR COUNTRY. KWABENE NI KWABENE BOY. INSANSA TASHIPWILILIKA. I LIVE IN A HIGHLY DEVELOPED COUNTRY, BUT, I BECOME SO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT OUR GOVT IS DEVELOPMENT THE COUNTRY INFRASTRUCTURE.
Haven’t you heard about the tow gates scam, were the government has lost about K2,000,000=00, due to issuing fake receipts by the attendants.
No points guessing what is going to happen here they will go to Chinese EXIM Bank get a loan equates to Chinese contractor….for a highway we need European main contractors from German or England.
I totally agree with Ba Folosho and True Hates. Both their contributions make a lot of sense. Over and above that, if the government still feel this is the way to go, then the project should be extended to Livingstone. This is a similar trunk highway and it’s always prone to accidents. How about that Mr Chilubanama?
Seven people died last week and 22 have just died. Yet PF corruptly went to construct roads and universities where there was no urgent demand and the Lusaka to Ndola road should have been finished a year ago. State house has become a corrupt house of corruption for Lungu and Kaizer to cut contracts for major projects.
Ba Folosho, hospitals certainly need an upgrade. Nevertheless there’s no harm in contributing to reducing road traffic accidents by improving our road network. The road being talked about here has claimed many lives. Converting it into a dual carriageway would certainly make a difference.
Everything is “foreign companies have expressed interest in whatever, whatever. What will Zambians do? KK fought hard to grab back what belonged to Zambia and we have given them away again. Even all small opportunities which manifest themselves you give them away on a pretext that foreign investors will come and create jobs for Zambians. Sata fought hard to grab ZAMTEL and Zambia Railways but for you, you are always looking forward to sell every opportunity which Zambians can exploit to bring bread and butter on their tables. You keep on pushing Zambians to the streets and reserving investment opportunities to non-Zambians. If Kavindele can embark on North Western Railway Construction Project, can other Zambians fail to exploit such opportunities?
Zambian contractors do not have the capacity to do such a project. Please we need a good road not shoddy and that’s why Govt is forced to hire foreign contractors. Don’t pretend to be ignorant about this
THE kwacha has continued to gain against major currencies the kwacha is topping the charts among most African currencies after making massive gains from USD – See more at: http://www.postzambia.com/news.
Eric@ if we had jailed those who sold our companies and pocketed money the problem of thieving in Zambia would have been long gone. What do you expect if thieves who would have been leaders of prisoners in jail now want to rule this country? Thieves turning into HEROS.
@TRUE ZAMBIAN,THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS SIMPLY….CORRUPTION!!!!IT IS FRUSTRATING .THE POVERTY YOU SEE IS OUR OWN MAKING.15 MILLION PEOPLE WITH THE RESOURCES WE HAVE;WE WILL BE LIVING LIKE KINGS.EVEN EDUCATION CAN BE FREE AGAIN!!THOSE TELLING YOU THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE ARE THE THIEVES & THE CORRUPT.THEY WANT ALL THE GOOD THINGS FOR THEMSELVES,THEIR FAMILIES & FRIENDS.
please construct proper toll gates there is a reason they have a roof and extra barricading, also fire whom ever is in charge of painting the road lines those lines disappear after 5 days its like their using chalk
Why has it taken 5 years to evaluate the bids??
I thought the money could have been better spent on making streets in Chilala and Libala
I call upon all loving Zambians to watch the comments from the devil worshippers who don’t or have never said anything good about their perceived country”Zambia”. These names are: The chosen one,Nostradamus,Chils, jay jay,Eric,state house corruption, true Zambian and Lelo. Why bother about a poor country like Zambia, if you are comfortable where you are? One thing is clear muchulafye in diaspora we, in Zambia own our homes, many built by Zambians and others benefitted from the Chiluba government housing projects where sitting tenants were sold houses cheaply. Chiluba will be remembered for that like it or not. If Zambia is your country why talk ill of your motherland? It’s either you are mentality unstable or an imbecile. You say who have solutions, to Zambia’s problems where…
I would like to know where the goes
As for the above news on the construction of dual carriage way – total rubbish
The tendering documents that were closed in November 2012 had since been evaluated and the contract was to be awarded by February 28 2013.
Bring in Phoenix Construction Company. You don’t need such a large number of contractors. Look at what Phoenix did on the Ndola Kitwe dual road. They even left a legacy we now call Baluba Town which didn’t exist before them. Companies should leave legacies and not only siphoning our wealth like Indians have done on the Copperbelt.
@Beenzu
The topic is about Public Private Partnership (PPP) but not foreign or local contractors.