Roads Authority (RA) has launched its 2025-2030 Strategic and Business Plan which focuses on revamping roads and bridges nationwide to support the country’s development goals.
Outlining the plan in Lilongwe on Friday, RA chief executive officer Engineer Ammiel Champiti said based on the 2025/26 Annual National Roads Programme needs, the authority will require about $4.555 billion (about K7.96 trillion) to implement the five-year strategic plan, adding the RA cannot raise the funds on its own.
He said: “The plan will, among other things, see capacity improvements of some roads covering 20 kilometres per year, construction of seven new bridges per year, rehabilitation of paved roads covering about 145 kilometres per year, periodic maintenance covering 1 600 kilometres for the five years, upgrading of earth roads into tarmac covering 80 kilometres per year, undertaking of 20 feasibility studies and detailed designs per year, eight research studies per year, grading 3 700 kilometres of rural roads per year and patching roads.”
Champiti said to successfully implement the plan, RA will require financial support from the Roads Fund Administration (RFA), Treasury and development partners. He said timely disbursement of funding will be crucial to achieve efficiency.
“The lobbying of resources will be facilitated through continuous undertaking of feasibility studies and designs and packaging of development and maintenance interventions into large contracts for participation by international and local partnerships,” he said.
RA board chairperson Matilda Matabwa said the authority is committed to building roads that connect places and connect people to opportunities, products to buyers, services to those in need as well as connect markets to farmers.
She appealed to the public to protect the infrastructure by driving responsibly and also avoiding vandalism, dumping waste in drainage systems, and encroaching road reserves.
Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara, who presided over the launch, said government is committed to ensuring effective implementation of the strategic plan.
The minister noted that with prospects of a boom in mining activities and the growth of other industries, the roads sector should be assured of resources for the construction of roads.
Hara, himself a civil engineer, challenged the RA to start thinking beyond four-lane roads for capacity improvements but to work on more rural roads.
RA has been facing financing gaps in recent years as RFA, which mobilises resources for road construction, has failed to collect funding under the road maintenance levy in the fuel price build up due to Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority inability to collect and remit road levies.
