14 Mar 2022

 The Charleshill-Ncojane road, which connects to Trans-Kalahari corridor, enhances social integration and regional trade between Botswana and Namibia.
Minister of Transport and Communication, Mr Thulagano Segokgo said when officially opening the road, also named B214 on Friday.
The road, he said, facilitated cross border movement of people and commodities between Botswana and Namibia, and therefore improved the country’s capacity and global competitiveness as it enhanced mobility and access to markets.
Thus, it would go a long way towards boosting Batswana’s socio economic welfare, he said. The minister regretted the late delivery of the project, which entailed construction of a 104km main road, with 1.3 km access roads to villages of Makunda, Kole and Ncojane, saying it was an inconvenience to the communities of the area.
However, he said, the road created employment for about 140 people.
Farmers who owned boreholes along the road had also benefited during construction as they leased their boreholes to the contractor.
He appealed to residents of the villages along the road to ensure the road reserve fence was not stolen or vandalised, as in that condition it would put motorists in danger as animals would escape through the openings in the fence.
Further, he said, its replacement cost was very high. Acting director in the Department of Roads, Mr Motsayalere Basuti, who attributed the delay in delivery of the project to the design and build model adopted during construction of the road, said it was built to last 20 years.
He pledged his department would maintain it and urged road uses to also take care of it.
Mr Basuti told later BOPA in an interview that the project budget was initially P436m, but the expenditure had gone over P450m at completion.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Kgosi Mbao Kahiko III of Charleshill had said the road would improve the socio-economic status of the area as well as change its landscape.
ZAC construction (Pty) built the road under the initial supervision of Bothaka Burrow Botswana as a project manager and Herbco as environmentalist.
The project started in September 2015 and was to run for 36 months.
However, it was only completed in May 2021 owing to issues relating to interpretation of the contract by the parties and subsequent disputes. ENDS