THE construction of the $286.9 million Mongu-Kalabo road whose works were scheduled to be completed in April 2016 has had its completion date brought forward to December 31 next year.

RDA chief executive officer Bernard Chiwala said here yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on Western Province permanent secretary Augustine Seyuba that the works which started in 2011 will finish four months ahead of schedule .

Mr Chiwala commended Avic Constructions International the contractor working on the road for working ahead of schedule.

“The Mongu-Kalabo road which is our second largest project is an engineering marvel and it has stretched our minds in order to find a technically sound solution so that it can stand the test of time,”Mr Chiwala said.

He said the road which has 26 bridges has had 69 percent of the works done.

“78 percent works on the bridges ?have been done while 60 percent of the road works have been done, “ he said.

Mr Chiwala said it has not been easy working on the road due to non-availability of materials as most of them have to be imported from either Lusaka or South Africa.

“we are also grateful to Government for always making resources available,” Mr Chiwala said.

And Mr Seyuba said his office is committed to ensuring that development in the province continues despite the political mood surrounding the country.

He said the province has never seen such major development in a long time.

Mr Seyuba said the Mongu-Kalabo road will open up trade links between Mongu and Angola.

“We are very happy with the road works in the province and they are so perfect,” Mr Seyuba said.

He also commented the contractor for the good job on the 34-kilometre stretch.

Mr Chiwala and his entourage later toured the Mongu-Kalabo road.

MINISTER of Finance Alexander Chikwanda is leading a Zambian delegation at the 61st TAZARA council of ministers meeting in Dar es Salaam.

And the Tanzania Parliamentary Committee on Infrastructure has asked its government to review the law establishing Tazara for it to operate commercially instead of sticking to the present Act which only benefits Zambia.

Mr Chikwanda is acompanied by Minister of Transport, Communication, Works and Supply Yamfwa Mukanga, Minister of Commerce and Trade Robert Sichinga, permanent secretary Charles Sipanje and other senior government officials.

The meeting, which is being held at Tazara head office, is also being attended by Tanzanian Minister of Transport Harrison Makyembe, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Abdallah Kigoda and other senior government officials.

Speaking after touring a number of projects in Dar es Salaam and Mbeya on Tuesday, the Tanzanian Parliamentarian Committee on Infrastructure called for more investment in Tazara.

The projects visited by the committee were: the gravel factory, rail-making plant at Kongolo Mswiswi in Mbarali and train engine repairing garage in Mbeya.

“The present law which states that the head of the rail should be Zambian and should also have the last say on the transport entity has been overtaken by events and therefore should be scrapped,” said Tunduru South lawmaker Mtutura Abdallah.

He said the formation of the railway agency was governed by the politics of the time which have been on the reign in operating it, adding that it ought to be reviewed to allow the first Uhuru railway on the continent operate commercially.

“Two things ought to be done at the same time. One is the review of the Act governing the rail operations so as to have it run commercially for the benefit of the shareholders. And two; the government to invest more into this agency for more productivity and the national economic growth,” Mr Mtutura said.

Mariam Msabaha (Zanzibar Urban West, Special Seats) said it is high time the government ensured that workers in the railway company were paid their salaries on time so they could work more efficiently and effectively.

For a number of years now, Tazara workers, particularly those on the Tanzanian side, have been going without salaries for many months.

She said this was so because Zambia had reviewed the establishing law.

Special Seats MP for Arusha Rebecca Mngodo said the Transport ministry ought to prepare a budget for the railway which should be passed by the parliament to make it more efficiency.

She said before investing more money in Tazara, the law must put it clearly how Tanzanians are going to benefit.
Committee chairperson Juma Kapuya said the committee will advise the government accordingly on what ought to be done to revamp Tazara.

“We have seen how the nation is poorly fairing in Tazara, besides we have seen many things including the good projects under the rail which are not running productively. We are going to document our observations to the government on its part in Tazara,” Professor Kapuya said.

And Dr Mwakyembe said he concurred with the lawmakers’ views that the rail company should now operate as a commercial entity.

He said circumstances which were governing during the establishment of the rail firm and the Tanzania-Zambia Pipeline were aimed at saving Zambia from depending on the exploitative Boer regime of South Africa. That is why the law had to favour Zambia more than Tanzania, he added.

“At present, such circumstances are non-existent, he said, therefore there is a need to change the law so as to benefit the shareholders equally, “he said.

The committee will also tour Itungi port on Lake Nyasa, Songwe international airport, and Momba district bordering Zambia.

SOME unscrupulous people in Kitwe’s Chimwemwe Township have vandalised over 250 water meters that were recently installed by Nkana Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC).

Early this year, NWSC embarked on a programme to install 7,000 water metres in Kitwe’s Chimwemwe and Bulangililo townships but the devices are being removed by unknown people.

NWSC community mobilisation specialist Mwangala Chiwala expressed sadness over the vandalism of the water meters which were installed at a huge cost.

Ms Chiwala said NWSC spent K3 million to install the water meters in Chimwemwe and Bulangililo townships and that the vandalism of the devices is a huge loss to the company.

“We are really saddened with what is happening in Kitwe’s Bulangililo and Chimwemwe townships where some unknown people are removing the water meters that we recently installed. Some people are even burning the meters, these devices were installed at a huge cost,” she said.

Ms Chiwala suspects it’s the residents who are vandalising the meters to avoid paying the water bills and warned that they risk facing the law should they continue destroying water infrastructure.

She urged the residents to safeguard the water infrastructure which is meant to improve the supply of water in their area.

Ms Chiwala also bemoaned the high rate at which water pipes and pump valves in Kitwe’s Wusakile and Chamboli townships are being vandalised which has resulted in the two townships experiencing erratic water supply.

She said the vandalism of water pipes in Wusakile and Chamboli townships is retrogressive on the part of the company which is supposed to spend its money on implementing new projects instead of replacing stolen pipes.

Ms Chiwala warned that anyone found vandalising water infrastructure risks facing a jail sentence of not less than one year.

Monze District Commissioner, Big Mwiinde, has assured farmers who supplied Maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in the district to be patient as they will be paid soon.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, Mr Mwiinde explained that small scale farmers owed money by the agency should not despair as efforts were being made to pay all the farmers who supplied their maize to the FRA in the district during the last marketing season.

“I have received good news that some farmers who supplied maize to FRA will start receiving their money presumably next week and all I can ask our small scale farmers who have not been paid yet to be patient as they will be paid soon,” said Mr Mwiinde.

“Of course we have received a lot of complaints from farmers in the district on the delayed payments for the maize they delivered to FRA but I can assure them that by next week they will start receiving their monies,” he added
The District Commissioner, however, reluctantly admitted that the late payments to farmers would affect proper preparations for crop production during the 2014/2015 farming season.

On the other hand Mr Mwiinde said government was up to the challenge of ensuring that all the farmers under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) received all the farming inputs they needed on time.

He explained that most of the small scale farmers under FISP had already received farming inputs, notably basal dressing fertiliser and maize seed, adding that the district would soon start distributing top dressing fertiliser to all small scale farmers in the district.

“I would say we have delivered all the farming inputs except for top dressing fertiliser which is being delivered to the district as I speak and hopefully next week all farmers will receive top dressing fertiliser,” Mr Mwiinde said.

Meanwhile, Mr Mwiinde said 1,400 x 50 kg bags of top dressing and basal fertiliser has been distributed to vulnerable people in the district under the Food Security Pack (FSP).

Mr Mwiinde said the programme under the tutelage of the Department of Community Development aims at supporting the aged, poor people, orphaned and other vulnerable people in society, adding that the programme has achieved positive results in reducing poverty in the district.