Roads Fund spends K60bn on city roads project

Roads Fund Administration (RFA) says it has spent over K60 billion since 2016/2017 on roads project in the country’s four cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba.

Speaking during a tour of some roads being constructed in Mzuzu City on Friday, RFA board chairperson Mathews Chikankheni said the funds are part of the K155.44 billion roads budget that was allocated for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the road network across Malawi.

He said in Mzuzu, RFA has spent over K11 billion on the construction and upgrading of the roads and bridges.

Said Chikankheni: “We are satisfied with what we have seen in cities, and Mzuzu City is doing a great job in providing road services to their residents. The roads they are putting in are not that substandard but they are of quality.”

Mzuzu City Council chief executive officer Gomegzani Nyasulu applauded RFA for having confidence in them.

“The RFA believes in us and we will not let them down. Two years ago, we were funded to maintain the roads and the initiative was very good and could make our roads look good all the time,” he said.

Among other things, Nyasulu asked RFA to consider a tollgate in Mzuzu.

Chikankheni said plans are in place for the tollgate.

“Tollgates are one of the vehicles used to raise funds for upgrading or rehabilitating roads. We have taken it up and it is the plan of the government and RFA to have toll gates in all cities in the country. The public sector investment programme has already included this in their future investment program,” he said.

Mzuzu has an approximate road network of 240 kilometres (km).

In the 2022/23 National Budget, about K4.7 billion has been allocated to upgrade five roads covering a distance of 9.9km.