State House keen to have Kafue-Mazabuka road rehabilitated

STATE House says it will engage the ministry of Finance to ensure that funds are released for the rehabilitation of the deplorable Kafue-Chikankanta-Mazabuka road, Special Assistant to the President for Project Monitoring Andrew Chellah has said.

Mr Chellah, who was yesterday on a fact finding mission of the state of the road, described the road as deplorable.

He however disclosed that the Road Development Agency (RDA) has identified a contractor (INYATSI) to patch up dangerous potholes as a short term measure.

Mr Chellah also took time to inspect the construction of Chikakanta police station and camp which were 80 percent complete.

This follows the creation of Chikankanta as a district by the government.

Speaking when he inspected the road following numerous complaints from motorists, Mr Chellah said State House wanted to know the extent of the damage.

He said in the short term RDA would engage INYATSI to fix the potholes until the rains were over after which a long term measure could be considered.

"No project is too far or too small for the government's developmental agenda," he said.

Mr Chellah said the government's agenda was to go to all parts of Zambia regardless of political and ethnic affiliation.

He said President Edgar Lungu has directed that development should be equally distributed to all parts of the country hence his visit to inspect the road.

Mr Chellah said the 7th National Development Plan (7NDP) was aimed at diversifying from copper dependence to agriculture and tourism, adding that the Kafue-Mazabuka road was of economic value with regards to the agriculture and tourism sectors among others. Meanwhile, Shalom coach driver Patrick Matyola said accidents were the order of the day on the Kafue-Mazabuka road due to deplorable state.

He appealed to government to consider rehabilitating the road before more lives were lost due to traffic accidents.

Mr Matyola feared that with the coming of the rains the road would be damaged further.

And Fostahe Ngandu, a minibus driver in Mazabuka, complained that there were more accidents along Kafue-Mazabuka road due to dangerous potholes.

Another motorist, Bruno Nyimba said heavy trucks carrying copper from the Copperbelt and North Western destined for South Africa had contributed to the deplorable state of the road.

He said there was a slowdown of traffic due to the state of the road.