16 Mar 2022

 The Ministry of Transport and Communications has identified the need for increased road infrastructure development as a key social upliftment and economic growth factor, Minister Thulagano Segokgo has said.

 Speaking at the official opening of the Dibete-Mookane-Machaneng Road on Tuesday, he said road infrastructure ‘facilitates movement and enables interaction of stakeholders in the quest for business and service delivery’.
 

Government therefore planned to expand road infrastructure and network to facilitate ease of doing business, Mr Segokgo said.
 

He said such development would help improve the country’s business capacity and global competitiveness by enhancing mobility and access to markets.

The Dibete-Mookane-Machaneng Road, Minister Segokgo said, would benefit many commercial farmers along its alignment as markets for farm produce would now be more accessible.

It would also help reduce traffic congestion on the A1 Road as it served as an alternative route, he said.

Mr Segokgo applauded ACEZ Botswana, a citizen joint venture between EH Construction, previously known as Excavator Hire, and Asphalt Botswana, for completing the over P523 million project within budget.

The company was also commended for employing 602 Batswana out of a total workforce of 625.

Giving the technical background to the project, Department of Roads acting director Mr Motsayalere Basuti explained that the upgrading of the 132-kilometre road to bitumen standard was initiated under the Economic Stimulus Programme.

Initially, he explained, it was scheduled to take 30 months from June 2017 to December 2019 but experienced delays associated with acquisition of Makwate quarry from which construction material was sourced.

COVID-19 challenges and Machaneng Prisons ploughing fields, which were on the critical path of the road alignment, also contributed to the delays, Mr Basuti said.

He said the project, stretching from Dibete to Machaneng, also included two kilometres of access roads into the villages of Mookane, Mmaphashalala, Dovedale and Makwate.

In his remarks, project contractor Mr Markos Markides thanked government for affording ACEZ Botswana the opportunity to execute the project.

The awarding of the tender to citizen contractors proved that government had confidence in local companies, he said.

Thanking government for the project, Mookane chief, Kgosi Isabella Tshipana however expressed concern that some members of the public had not yet been compensated for their pieces of land.

Mahalapye East MP, Mr Yandani Boko also welcomed the project.

On a different issue,  MP Boko encouraged his constituents to ready themselves for the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into the Review of the Constitution which he said would soon reach the area.ENDS