31 Jan 2016

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo, has expressed his dissatisfaction with progress of the Tonota-Francistown dual carriage.

The P1 billion project commenced on October 2012 and is expected to be completed by August 2016.

The Cresta Thapama Lodge interchange, which started on February 3, 2015, is also behind schedule

Progress for the project being carried out by China Railway Seventh Group was expected to be at 45 per cent but at the moment is at 22 per cent, showing a delay of up to 23 per cent.

Mr Mabeo noted that government was concerned with projects not completed on time, adding that there was a lot that needed to be done on the project in order to reach the deadline.

The minister said delivering the project on time would have a positive impact on the businesses and the people of Francistown as well as reduce traffic congestion.  

He said the businesses would benefit from opportunities presented through this massive infrastructure facility, which generated hundreds of jobs for Batswana.

The expectation, he noted, is that more Batswana will be incorporated into the construction of the interchange so as to meet the deadline.

China Railways Seventh Group project manager, Mr Ma Shugiang said the project was behind schedule due to several challenges.

One of the challenges was relocation of services, which included the cables for Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Botswana Fibre Network (BoFINET), as their network wires were installed underground.

Mr Shugiang said another challenge was the foundations piles, which gave them some problems during installation and were forced to import other piles from outside the country.

He said the delay was also caused by some residents who took long to move out to pave way for the project and further said they would make efforts to ensure that the project was completed on time.

The project manager further said they wouldensure this by increasing their resources such as workers and equipment so that they deliver the project well on time. Ends