Nyusi lays first stone in Mueda-Negomano road

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Nyusi lays first stone in Mueda-Negomano road

6:17 CAT | 03 Oct 2018

Photo: Notícias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday laid the first stone for the rehabilitation and paving of the 165 kilometre road from Mueda to Negomano, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

The paving is financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and will cost 40.6 million US dollars. The work will be undertaken in two phases. The first is tarring the road from Negomano, on the Tanzanian border, to Roma, a distance of 70 kilometres. The second phase, from Roma to Mueda, should be undertaken in 2019.

The purpose of this project is to ensure a good, tarred road between Tanzania and Mozambique. The border between the two countries is the Rovuma River, and in 2010 the “Unity Bridge” across the river was inaugurated by the Mozambican and Tanzanian presidents of the time, Armando Guebuza and Jakaya Kikwete.

The bridge has remained underused, largely because of the lack of good road connections on the Mozambican side.

Unionbridge.tz_.moz_.dw_-2 — *Unity Bridge. File photo: Deutsche Welle*

Nyusi told the inauguration ceremony that the road will be the final piece in the country’s main north-south highway, running from the Rovuma river to Ponta de Ouro, on the border with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal.

“This road will be a reality”, said Nyusi, “The Mueda-Roma-Negomano road will facilitate ecotourism since it crosses the buffer zone of the Niassa Reserve” (the largest wildlife conservation areas in the country).

Nyusi said the road will create investment opportunities benefiting people living in the north of Cabo Delgado, and will “promote formal cross-border trade with Tanzania, contributing to economic growth and poverty eradication”.

An AfDB representative, Joao David, justified the bank’s financing, on the grounds that the Mueda-Negomano road falls within the bank’s focus on infrastructures to stimulate the sustainable development of the economy.

ALSO READ: Construction of Mozambique-Tanzania highway gets underway

“It is no accident that currently more than 60 per cent of the bank’s operations in Mozambique are aimed at the transport sector”, he said. “This partly reflects the role Mozambique plays on the regional chessboard, as a country providing services to landlocked countries”.

Work on the road should take 30 months, and includes a drainage system to protect the road against flooding and ensure resilience in the case of heavy rains. The contractor is the Chinese company, the Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group (AFECC).

The job will include three reinforced concrete bridges replacing the current flimsy river crossings which sometimes make the road impassable in the rainy season.

At a Mueda primary school, Nyusi announced the distribution of 30,000 desks to the province’s schools. Since two pupils can sit at each desk, and each school generally handles two shifts, these desks will cater for 120,000 pupils. This distribution is part of the government’s plans to ensure that by the end of this year no pupil has to sit on the ground during classes.

A imagem pode conter: 3 pessoas, multidÃ£o

Of the 30,000 desks, 2,750 have been allocated to Mueda district, 100 of them to the school where Nyusi made the delivery.

Speaking to the pupils, Nyusi said “we want you to look after these desks properly. These desks can last for years and years. We want to end this problem and, in the next cycle, we shall invest in the construction of more classrooms”.

Source: AIM