15 Nov 2021

The on-going refurbishment of Mahalapye bus rank is expected to be complete by end of this month. 

“Our plan is for the buses to start occupying the bus rank from November 30. We are currently working around the clock to complete paving of the whole bus rank by November 20. We have already ordered the signage that will indicate both the buses and taxi parking lanes,” said Mahalapye Sub-district Council chairperson, Mr Bantlhasetse Merementsi in an interview.

He said the paving of the bus/taxi lanes in the bus rank was at 95 per cent, while the storm water drainage projects around the area was at 60 per cent attributing the delay to procured culverts which were expected to be delivered by first week of December. 

He said once paving had been completed, a tower light and anti-theft fence would be installed to curb criminal activities taking place on the western side of the bus rank. 

He said he was pleased that paving of the drainage tunnels and some internal roads, adjacent to the bus rank were almost complete and was done using old paving bricks that were removed from the bus rank.

Mr Merementsi said a consultative meeting would be held soon to update stakeholders especially public transport operators and hawkers on the progress of the bus rank refurbishment.

Giving an update on another on-going project of paving the internal roads in Shoshong, Mr Merementsi said the projects was about 95 per cent complete, adding that out of the 18 kilometres road, about 13 was complete. 

He said the two projects of Mahalapye bus rank refurbishment and paving of Shoshong internal roads were within budget and had been funded at more than P57 million by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development through the Road Levy Fund. 

Over P47 million has been allocated for Shoshong internal roads, while P10 million was for refurbishment of Mahalapye bus rank. 

He said the Sub-district council had partly engaged its own labour and equipment shared between the two projects to reduce costs in both projects.  ENDS