Friday, April 19, 2024

Copperbelt Province Roads need urgent attention

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Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary, Augustine Kasongo says the state of roads on the Copperbelt needs prompt attention from relevant authorities.

Mr Kasongo says most of the roads are beyond repair stage and will need complete overhaul to allow smooth movement of goods and services.

Mr Kasongo has told ZANIS that Copperbelt being the backbone of the country’s economy needs to have better roads which will not hinder delivery of various products to and from the market.

He has expressed optimism that the visit by Minister of Infrastructure and Urban Development, Charles Milupi tomorrow will reveal some tangible development as regards the various pending road projects.

Mr Kasongo said the minister of infrastructure is expected to undertake physical inspections on the Ndola -Lusaka, Ndola Mufulira and Mufulira-Mokambo and some selected township roads within Ndola.

He added that other roads that Mr Milupi will inspect are Lumpuma – Mukutuma in Lufwanyama, Mpongwe-Machiya in Mpongwe and the Chingola- Kasumbalesa.

Mr Kasongo, however, has assured Copperbelt residents that his office has been informed that some key roads will have works commencing between 60 and 90 days of the first quarter of 2023.

15 COMMENTS

  1. I was disappointed that Charles Milupi elected to join dull Ministers to defend the indefensible. I expected him to tell us how he’s going to use the money that he collects in tolls to fix our roads. Milupi can’t explain where the money from tolls is. While he’s scratching his balls our roads are becoming worse. What kind of people are these? Zanama is always on the radio talking nonsense at the expense of service delivery

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    • It’s not Charles Milupi to decide how money from tollgates is to be spent. It’s the law and regulations that have been drafted that do that.

  2. A direct result of MMD and PF failures in road maintenance. During UNIP roads where never allowed to reach such deteriorating levels. Zambia is faced with these problems because of 30 years of poor planing by previous governments. But the current govt must wake up to the challenge and rectify this problem at all costs because roads are a life line.

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  3. All major roads in the country should have a maintenance schedules and these should fall under the councils. Be proactive instead of waiting for a road to fully deteriorate before making noises of repair. Start targeting incompetence to fully sort this issue out.

    • No they shouldnt fall under the councils because roads will become as good or as bad as the supervising council. Roads that are classified highways should be left to a national roads body like is done in many countries. Highway maintenance should then be left to this body as it collects tolls for their maintenance. Councils need to know how to set their rates and how to use this money properly

    • This is because councils should maintain local roads, pavements etc. Previously on the copperbelt the councils relied 90 percent on the Mining companies who serviced roads and paid lots of levies that the councils were supposed to use in townships outside the Mining areas. Privatisation changed this arrangement negatively

    • I think you are confusing authority with contractors. Local councils are an authority on behalf of government in their areas and have the duty to manage these areas efficiently. That management includes supervising, subcontracting, enforcement and many more on behalf of government. Highway agencies manage highways but council have powers to summon these agencies to attend to road issues in their areas.

    • @Futurezed authorities have jurisdictions and contractors may be hired by these authorities. Just within Zambia’s neighbourhood lets look at South Africa. The highways that pass through cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria are not maintained by Joburg Metro or Pretoria metro. They are classified as national roads and are therefore falling under National Roads Agency. All other roads within the cities dont fall under National Roads and are therefore maintained by the local councils.

  4. I remember PF pumping about half billion dollars to CB roads giving that contract to AVIC …today we are back to square one..meaning that the roads were poorly done.

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  5. Most roads that were done under PF are still intact except for those that were pending and whose contracts have been cancelled

  6. One of the reasons we kicked UNIP out was because of poor roads. The MMD immediately started an ambitious program to reconstruct roads. Chingola – Kapiri was done by Phoenix, apart from township roads. One political campaign message depicted a car driving on a bad road

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