Africa-Press – Angola. The construction work on the Luau/Cazombo/Lumbala Caquengue road, a 247.50-kilometre route, whose assignment took place this Tuesday, in Cavungo commune, Alto Zambeze municipality (Moxico), could last four years .
Once completed, the road will have an 11-metre-wide two-way carriageway, berms, embankment slope and ditches.
At a cost of 276 million and 91 thousand US dollars (1 USD equal to 681.99 Kz), the works begin in the town of Marco 25, in the municipality of Luau, passing through the commune of Cavungo, in the municipal seat of Alto Zambeze (Cazombo), and ends in the other commune of the same municipality, Lumbala Caquengue.
This route, 247, 50 kilometres, is part of National Road 250 (EN 250) and three Complementary Roads (EC 192, 254, 385), and is part of the Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program of the Ministry of Public Works, Urbanism and Housing, and is funded by Germany.
With 1,221 jobs created, the project is being carried out by the company Queirós Galvão (QVMI).
The Minister of Public Works, Urban Planning and Housing, Carlos Alberto dos Santos, who, like the provincial governor, Ernesto Muangala, witnessed the act of assigning the work, recommended greater speed.
The official announced that from 2023 to 2027, Moxico will have 700 kilometers of paved roads and 300 linear meters of bridges to unite the municipal and communal headquarters, villages and localities of the region.
The governor of Moxico, Ernesto Muangala, recalled the importance of road rehabilitation to shorten the journey between the city of Luena (provincial seat) and the village of Cazombo (Alto Zambeze).
In turn, Queen Nhakatolo Tchissengo, sovereign of the Luvale tribe, expressed her satisfaction with the initiative that had long been called for by the population, auguring more investment in the water and electricity sector.
For the resident Alberto Tchipango, the rehabilitation of the road will reduce the price of the taxi ride, from Cavungo to the municipal headquarters of Luau, currently practiced in the price of 10 thousand kwanzas, while for the village of Cazombo, it is around 11 to 12 thousand kwanzas .
Anastácia Mujinga, another resident, said that getting around the section is difficult, and predicts that the asphalting of the road will bring development to the region, an idea corroborated by Tchinhama Cacoma.
EN 250: a tumultuous section
In the rainy season, on the Luau/Cazombo route, the road is degraded and the normal travel time increases from two to 11 hours, posing great challenges to the population.
This is a contract that has already been assigned three times, including this Tuesday. Work began with earthworks from April to September 2019, with the work interregnum due to lack of funds.
This 2019 earthworks, over a length of 175 kilometres, on the Marco 25/Cazombo section, headquarters of the Alto Zambeze municipality, was in charge of the Chinese civil construction company Sinohidro, with a budget of more than 837 million Kwanzas.
The first assignment, in 2011 and which stopped three years later, allowed only 85 kilometers to be paved out of the 260 that separate Luau from Cazombo. The works resume seven years after the earthworks process carried out by Sinohidro.
The province of Moxico has only 602 kilometers of paved roads out of the 3,477 that make up the road network, and of the nine municipalities, only one (Camanongue) is connected by paved road to the capital city of the province of Moxico.
The municipality of Alto Zambeze, 519 kilometers east of the city of Luena, has 145,330 inhabitants, according to the 2023 projection of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), who live in the communes of Cavungo, Macondo, Caianda, Calunda, Lumbala Caquengue, Lóvua and Cazombo (headquarters).
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