Nyusi lays first stone for bridge in Niassa, Mozambique

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Nyusi lays first stone for bridge in Niassa, Mozambique

5:50 CAT | 10 May 2016

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday laid the first stone for the construction of a bridge over the Lunho river, which will link the Messumba and Ngoo localities in Lago district, in the northernmost province of Niassa.

The bridge is estimated to cost slightly short of 200 million meticais (3.8 million US dollars at current exchange rates), paid for entirely out of the Mozambican state budget. The bridge will be built by a Mozambican contractor, Construcoes Casame. It will be 136 metres long and 9.9 metres wide, including walkways for pedestrians.

The bridge will be built high enough to ensure that, for at least the next hundred years, the largest flood likely in Niassa will not be able to reach it.

Currently vehicles simply drive across the river bed, which means that the crossing can only be made in the dry season, when there is little or no water in the river. But in the rainy season it is impossible to cross from Messumba to Ngoo.

Messumba is an area of considerable mineral potential, particularly for limestone. A new bridge would thus stimulate exploitation of these deposits, as well as the movement of agricultural and livestock products. It will also create conditions for the establishment of public services in Messumba, as well as for the development of cross-border trade with Malawi,

Addressing a crowd at the bridge site, Nyusi recalled that the last time he was here, before he was elected President, he promised that a bridge would be built. That promise was now becoming a reality.

“Today I have come to say that the construction of the bridge is going to begin”, said Nyusi. “The next time I come here, I want to drive over the bridge”.

Also on Monday, Nyusi inaugurated a primary school in the provincial capital, Lichinga, and chaired a meeting of the Niassa Provincial Government, to which district administrators, aand mayors of municipalities were also invited.

Source: AIM