National News

Govt calls for patience on $350m Compact

Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara has appealed for patience on planned road projects under the $350 million (about K352 billion) Transport and Land Compact funded by Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, he said the road projects will take longer to begin as the process is being done in partnership with the donor, MCC, a United States of America government agency.

The minister, thus, called for patience, saying there are a number of processes involved.

Hara was responding to a question from Lilongwe South parliamentarian Peter Dimba (Malawi Congress Party) on when the roads project will start.

Hara: This will take time

The minister said MCC wants to be involved in the designs of the roads, procurement of consultants and contractors.

“So, this will take time. They want to make sure they are involved in the designs stage, they are involved in the procurement stages and they are involved in the procurements,” he said.

In an interview later, Hara indicated that the procurement processes and designs will take a big part of 2023.

In September this year, Malawi and MCC signed the $350 million grant to improve roads in rural areas as way of opening up the areas to markets as well as looking into land issues.

On when rehabilitation of the M1 from Lilongwe to Rumphi will begin, Hara said civil works will start after the rainy season next year. President Lazarus Chakwera launched the rehabilitation project in July this year.

However, the minister said contractors are conducting surveys and have already mobilised equipment and personnel.

Malawi Government will contribute $26.5 million towards Transport and Land Compact.

The compact seeks to open up rural areas to markets and reducing transport costs. The project will upgrade over 300 kilometres of roads to connect farmers to markets and strengthen the country’s land administration.

Malawi qualified for the second MCC compact, a grant, after successfully implementing an energy compact that rehabilitated the country’s power generation and transmission infrastructure, among other components.

Related Articles

Back to top button
WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.