The National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) of Zambia has given out US$710mn for road infrastructure development and services for the financial year 2015. This money will be used for on-going construction projects under the Link Zambia 8000 project, Pave 2000, Lusaka 400 and other road work plans across the provinces.
US $650mn of the amount will go under Road Development Agency, US$27.10m spent for the Road Transport and Safety Agency, US$34.20m for Local Road Authorities, while the capacity building programmers under the National Council for Construction (NCC) received US $1.06m of the amount.
According to the spokesperson for NFRA Alphonsius Hamachila, out of the US$710mn partners with the Zambian government will contribute 41 percent each through grants and loans while the Government of Zambia will give 34 percent of the amount.
The remaining 25 percent for the construction projects will be from transit and toll fees, road tax, weigh bridge fee and fines.
Hamachila said they would link implementation of Road Sector annual work plan and budget for 2015 with the policy by government to transform the country to a land-linked from a land-locked one, This was critical given the importance of road infrastructure to the economy of the country.
Mr Hamachila further noted that NRFA will also do monitoring and evaluation on the road construction projects in order to get value out of them.
The Link Zambia 8000 project aims at rehabilitating 2,290 kilometres of road network. The first phase of the project, alone was expected to cost US$ 1.5b and Phase II has been launched.
