Blantyre-Chiradzulu Turn-off dual carriageway to cost K12bn
Roads Authority (RA) has said the dual carriage way from Maselema Roundabout to Chiradzulu Turn-off on the Blantyre-Zomba Road (M3) will cost K12 billion (US$26.7 million).
RA public relations officer Portia Kajanga said in an interview construction of the road funded by the Malawi Government is expected to take 12 months.
According to Kajanga, Mota-Engil, who constructed the Blantyre-Zomba Road single carriage, are the contractors for the road section.
She said: “Mota-Engil are constructing the dual carriage on the road as they were still on site because the defects liability period [a period of time within which the contractor is contractually obliged to return to the construction site to repair defects which appeared in his works] of one year has not expired, so we decided to use them instead of engaging a new contractor altogether.”
Kajanga said the Zomba section of the road will not be a dual carriageway, but RA will reconstruct the section from Ku Chawe Inn Turn-off to Matawale Turn-off on the Zomba-Liwonde Road.
The 59.62 kilometre Blantyre-Zomba Road project started in March 2012 and was scheduled to finish in March 2014, but harsh weather and difficult ground conditions, among other factors, derailed its completion.
President Peter Mutharika officially opened the road, named John Chilembwe Highway, in January this year. The road was constructed from Maselema Roundabout in Blantyre to Ku Chawe Inn Turn-off in Zomba with funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Malawi Government.
