Govt signs contract for Zambia’s longest dual carriage way between Ndola and Lusaka

The Zambian government has signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the construction of dual carriage way between Ndola-Lusaka-Ndola.

Finance and National planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane said for the first time since independence the country was witnessing the construction of a dual carriage way of such length.

Musokotwane said a few years ago there was an attempt by the previous government to construct the same road but they did not succeed as it was overpriced.

He said the government did not proceed with the project because of the public uproar because the country was borrowing huge sums of money for the construction of the road.

“They wanted to borrow more than US$1.2 billion for the construction of the road which was overpriced,” he said.

Musokotwane said under the PPP project the government was not going to spend not even a single penny or borrow any money for the construction of this most important economical road.

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He said the government was not going to lose revenue through this partnership because they would be key participants in the revenues that would be collected from the roads.

“Critics were saying that this was not a PPP project because the government was getting financing from local intuitions like NAPSA but the local institution is  not financing the whole project,” Musokotwane said.

For him, it was better for the money to come from inside so that when the money was being paid back everything would remain in the country.

“The interest that will be earned by  National Pension  Scheme Authority (NAPSA) will  be in turn earned by the owners of NAPSA who are the people of Zambia,”  Musokotwane said.

He said this in Ndola  on Tuesday during the signing ceremony  held at Protea Hotel.

The  concession period of the project is  25 years split in two, three years of construction and 22 years of operations and maintenance respectively.

Musokotwane said as the contractor has already indicated that the construction of the road would take approximately 36 months.

Meanwhile, Infrastructure and Urban Development Minister  Charles Milupi  said the  construction of the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way would have cost the country more than $2 billion had the PF returned power after the 2012 election.

He said the total cost of construction of the dual carriage way under the PPP project would be $577 million.

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