Africa-Press – Mozambique. Rehabilitation work on National Road No. 1 (EN1), the main road in Mozambique, will begin in the second half of next year, the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources has said.
“The first question was really getting the financing, it is already guaranteed, at least part of it. By 2023, in the second half of the year, the works will begin,” Carlos Mesquita told the media on Monday, speaking on the sidelines of the 6th Engineering Congress, which is taking place in Maputo.
The EN1, the only road that connects the south, center and north of Mozambique, has been the scene of serious road accidents, with several deaths and almost always involving public transport, a problem associated with speeding, according to the authorities, which also admit the bad condition of the road at several points.
In April, the Mozambican government announced its intention to rehabilitate the EN1 and, according to calculations advanced at the time by the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, the works were budgeted at US$750 million (€748 million, at the current exchange rate) .
The rehabilitation, which includes the construction of a total of 13 tolls, will cover an extension of 1,300 kilometres of the 2,477 kilometres that the road has.
The executive already has half of the fund from the World Bank, which last week approved US$400 million (€399 million) for the Mozambican project ‘Estradas Seguras’, which includes support for the rehabilitation of the EN1.
“We are going to comply with all the normal procedures that the World Bank has, we are going to adjust and fine-tune the studies we already have to develop the project”, concluded the Minister.
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