M1 rehabilitation to start soon—RFA

 Roads Fund Administration (RFA) director of finance Alexander Makhwatha says the rehabilitation of Blantyre to Lilongwe stretch of the M1 will start soon.

He said this at Kalinyeke Primary School in Dedza on Thursday when the fund handed over a donation of 160 desks worth K17.5 million as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Makhwatha said RFA has raised K5.7 billion from Kal inyeke and Chingeni toll gates and the funds will be channelled towards rehabilitation of the M1.

He said they are working with the Roads Authority to engage a contractor and 

 start the rehabilitation works.

Said Makhwatha: “We totally agree that the main road is in bad shape but let me assure the public that we are set to rehabilitate it through the Roads Authority.

“They have told us that all procurement processes are done, a contractor has been identified and they will start assembling equipment soon to start rehabilitation works on the road.”

The RFA finance director further said the institution has also improved its security system on both toll gates to fight fraud

 which happened last year when at least six cash collectors were implicated in the missing of K10 million from both toll gates.

“We are now using a computerised security system which is being monitored 24 hours. We also installed sensitive security cameras which are able to capture every sound and conversation,” said Makhwatha.

He added that the RFA insured its toll gate facilities and is now working on recovering the abused funds. Meanwhile, he said the police have finished investigations on the matter and will be taking the case to court soon.

On his part, Dedza District Council director of administration Chris Salaniponi said they are disappointed that RFA has not honoured the council’s request to have five percent of the Kalinyeke Toll Gate collections dedicated to the district’s development.

He said: “We are disappointed that Dedza is not getting much from all the money collected from the toll gate and border post. We have been engaging authorities for consideration of at least five percent stake but to no avail.

“This is attracting so many questions from the public on the impact of these two facilities to our district.”

Salaniponi stressed the need for RFA to consider other sectors of development, such as power supply in schools