14 Sep 2016

The Tonota-Francistown road was opened to traffic on Tuesday (September 13).

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo, said the road was opened from Nzano Mall, commonly known as Game in Francistown to Tonota, adding that street lights from BMC to Naledi Motors, Tati Siding and Tonota were working.

Prior to opening of the road, motorists had been using one side of the dual carriage way and the minister noted that opening of the other side of the 30km dual carriage would ease traffic congestion.

He, however, said the official opening ceremony of the project, which also included the interchange, would await the completion and handing over of the second component of the project. Minister Mabeo, who also toured the interchange or spaghetti as referred to by residents, was told that construction was 49 per cent complete.

Mr Keobatile Sabokone of Pula Consultants said the remaining 51 percent was expected to be completed in February next year.

Commenting on the briefing, Minister Mabeo called for close monitoring of the project and encouraged stakeholders to ensure that the completion date was met. “Working together as a team will help have progress in the project,” he said.

He implored the contractor to come up with strategies to overcome challenges.

He said failure to complete the project on time would attract penalties for the contractor.

Mr Mabeo apologised to the public and the road users for the inconveniences during construction of the project.

The interchange is part of the Tonota/Francistown road construction, which started in October 2012 and the total cost of both the road and the interchange is P1 billion.

Construction of the interchange commenced in February last year and was expected to be completed last month but the expected completion date was extended to February next year.

Minister Mabeo also toured the on-going construction of the new train passenger terminal, which started in April this year and was expected to be complete by  the end of this month.

The project lead consultant from Gabana Consortium, Mr Moemedi Gabana said the project still needed four more weeks to complete because the contractor had to work around the train schedule.

He said since the train station was built during the Rhodesian Railways era, they had to be careful not to interrupt underground cables as there was no clear map. ENDS