NAREP welcomes dual carriageway cost reduction
IT is gratifying the government has decided to reduce the cost of the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way project, National Restoration Party (NAREP) Secretary General Ezra Ngulube has said. Mr Ngulube said his NAREP would continue to support the Patriotic Front (PF) government as it was embarking on projects that were manageable in terms of costs. He said it was pointless for Government to embark on costly projects if the same project could be done at a lesser
cost and save funds to improve other sectors of the economy. “We understand that the road projects are critical to the economic growth of the country but they shouldn’t be costly because they can drain our coffers,” Mr Ngulube said. Recently Road Development Agency board chairperson Samuel Mukupa told the Daily Nation in an interview that the Ministry of Finance was considering to cut the cost of the project. Mr Mukupa said the Ministry of Finance would cut the cost from the initial US$1.2 billion, saying that government want to ensure that the cost of the project was manageable. Mr Mukupa said the ministry was considering cancelling some aspects of the project to save on costs. And Mr Mukupa said the Ministry of Finance was finalising the financing agreement with the contractor and the project which had stalled would resume soon. Mr Ngulube said yesterday, the project came at a huge cost which could not be sustainable with the current economic situation. He has also appealed to the government to remove middlemen in all project being undertaken as they were exaggerating the costs.