Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Roads Directorate Director-General, Khasapane Kikine has bemoaned the state of Lesotho’s roads. Kikine told a press conference on Tuesday that most roads have depreciated due to the inability of the government to maintain them.
He said most roads were designed to last for 15 to 20 years after their construction. “However, it is required that such roads should be maintained over time to avoid severe depreciation,” Kikine said.
Kikine said as a department, they are responsible for the planning, development and maintenance of roads as defined in the regulations and carrying out quality assurance for all roads.
However, within the total of 7 000 road networks in the country, about 6 000 road networks are under their authority. He said this year, the roads have depreciated massively from 2010.
“The conditions for our paved roads have deteriorated to fair which will in turn be poor,” he said.
“For our unpaved roads, the conditions are very poor.
” Kikine said M6 billion is required immediately to maintain roads. However, he said for the current budget, they were allocated M440 million only for maintenance and construction of roads.
“We could have at least been given M1.1 billion to improve the roads to functional level,” he said.
Kikine explained that for a paved roads network, the immediate technical need is M2 billion where M296 million is needed for light reseals and reseals.
He said in total M1.8 million of paved roads should be resealed as preventive measures to deter further deterioration. He mentioned that a further M1.8 million is needed for heavy rehabilitation.
He also said for unpaved road networks, M3 million is required for immediate technical needs. He said M2 million is needed for gravelling of 1 703 kilometre-road network. He said M1.8 million is needed to upgrade unpaved roads to paved standards.
Kikine said their main priority is to maintain the road network from Maputsoe to Butha-Buthe, Maseru City main arterial roads, Maqhaka to Hleoheng, Butha-Buthe to Oxbow, Mafeteng to Quthing and Mount Moorosi.
He further said they are planning to improve access to main towns, key border posts, and the productive sector. He said to improve road safety and advance mobility to reduce congestion and vehicle operational costs, they have also planned to construct interchanges and secondary corridors.
However, Kikine said in the current capital budget of M4.4 billion, M270 million is allocated for construction of the Marakabei-Monontša road and M79 million will go for Mpiti to Sehlaba-Thebe.
He said M50 million has been assigned for the maintenance of paved roads while another M50 million is for unpaved roads across all the districts of Lesotho.
“Half of this money will pay the loan for the previous year,’’ he said.
He said in the Road Fund budget, “the budget was increased to M110 million where the road network from Ha-Malesaoana to Buthe-Buthe will be maintained”.
However, he said the money needed for maintenance of that network is M170 million. A budget of M84 million from the World Bank will be used for the maintenance of bridges.
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