Dispute halts Charleshill-Ncojane road construction
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday September 6, 2017 18:00
Appearing before the Portfolio committee, the Ministry of Transport and Communications deputy permanent secretary, Ephraim Balebetse told parliamentarians that the P487 million road is currently behind schedule as a result of the dispute.
Zac Construction won the tender to construct the Charleshill-Nqojane road in 2015 while Bothakga Burrow was appointed the supervising contractor for the project. However according to Balebetse, as of May this year only 83km has been constructed on the project that was supposed to take 36 months.
“The project is behind schedule as a result of a dispute that erupted between Zac Construction and Bothakga Burrow. This has been going on for six months now as the contractor is adamant that he cannot work with the consultant,” he said.
According to Balebetse, the ministry has not yet intervened on the issue as they are still considering other options to address the issue. He said Zac Construction won the tender through a new system called ‘design and construct’ which is said to address the challenges the ministry faces of delay and cost overrun of the projects.
Further he said the construction of the Mohembo Bridge project which was awarded in November last year is also running behind schedule as there are about three people who have not agreed to the compensation of what the government is offering. The P1-billion project is a joint venture between Italian companies Itinera and Cimolei with CTP Botswana as the supervising contractor. “CTP Botswana got P42 million to supervise the project which is now delayed as currently there is no construction yet but mobilisation is ongoing,” he said.
The P1-billion Gaborone-Boatle road is also delayed due to relocation of services like water and power. Balebetse said the road is currently at eight percent against the estimated 15%.
Commenting on the construction of the Kazungula Bridge, he said the construction is going well as they initially designed it into three packages.
He said the first phase, which was the construction of the bridge, is currently at 35% against the target of 39% noting that they intend to finish the bridge by January 2019. The second phase, which comprises the construction of the one stop border post in Kazungula, is progressing well as the construction commenced in April this year. He said the last phase, which comprises a border post in Zambia, is also progressing well as construction commenced in June this year.