Construction of three roads in Malawian commercial capital Blantyre is set to kick off after the Blantyre City Council received $1.6 million dollars from government.
The three roads set for upgrade are; Chilomoni Ring Road, Angelo Goveya to Manje and Living Waters to Zion in Chimwankhunda.
Blantyre City Mayor, Noel Chalamanda presided over the ground breaking ceremony of the 2 kilometres Chimwankhunda Living waters turn-off to Zion road marking the start of city roads upgrading project .
Chalamanda said construction works on the other roads namely; Off Mugabe Highway to Mpingwe, Chimseu to Magalasi and Landrover Chilimba to Level crossing in Magalasi will kick off immediately government disburses the remaining funds.
“The work on the other roads is scheduled to start as soon as we receive money from the government. We are really looking forward to the remaining funds that hopefully will be remitted to us very soon,” said Chalamanda.
According to Chalamanda, at least $202,977 of the already disbursed funds has been used in rehabilitation of the street lights in the city in a move to enhance security.
The three contractors given the mandate for the construction of the three roads include Eistern Construction for Chimwankhunda Living Waters- Zion road, Hema Construction for the Angelo Goveya-Manje road and Fargo Engineering Limited for Chilomoni Ring Road.
Meanwhile, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa said his ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works in the development of a devolution plan for the rural roads sector which will result into the District Councils also accessing resources for the improvement of the community roads.
He said the government has allocated $2.5 million to Blantyre and Lilongwe City Councils, $1.4 million to Zomba City Councils and $2million to Mzuzu respectively. This move aims to bring a facelift to the country’s cities to ensure better roads for easy access to public amenities such as hospitals, schools and markets among others.
