A South African firm, Capital Projects, has announced plans to invest $780 million to fund the construction of a highway linking Mozambique’s southern flagship tourism province of Inhambane and South Africa as part of a strategic bid to boost tourism and trade between the two countries, APA reported on Sunday.
The project for the construction of the road, covering 500 kilometers, was launched ten years ago, and before this period, about $500,000 worth of feasibility study was invested and the Mozambican government has always had difficulty finding funding for construction of this infrastructure which is expected to boost the development of tourism in Inhambane.
“I want to announce that we have managed to raise this amount and we will be working with our strategic partner, the Chinese Engineering and Roads Company (CHEC) and construction work should start as early as 2018”, Capital Projects representative, Modise Khoza, is quoted as saying by state-controlled weekly Sunday paper, Domingo.
“It’s a good project and sustainable. It will allow many cars to flow from South Africa to Mozambique and this will reduce Maputo traffic to the Central and North regions of the country and we will have another option, “he said.
The Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Bonete, considered this announcement as “a light at the bottom of the tunnel,” noting that the government has not yet been officially notified.
The project, to be called Limpopo Corridor and the road link will be constructed from Mozambique’s Mapinhane region in Vilankulo district, across the Pafuri border in Gaza province and so to South Africa.
Source: Journal du Cameroun
