The municipality of Beira, in Sofala Province in central Mozambique, has invested 218 million meticais (3 million euros) in the construction of an asphalt production plant for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the city’s roads, announced Albano Carige, president of the city’s Municipal Council, on Wednesday (1).
“The first road we will tackle will be Praça da Liberdade, which is the former Praça do Goto,” said Albano Carige during the infrastructure’s launch.
According to the mayor, the biggest challenge now is ensuring that the asphalt for the plant is imported at the most affordable price possible; approximately 170 metric tons of asphalt are already available for the project.
He also stated that there is still capacity to produce more asphalt, but that the municipality has been waiting for about two months for approval of a customs duty exemption, a process that remains pending with the Tax Authority.
“While they hold onto our document, we’re not standing still,” Carige assured, adding that the plant cost the “municipal treasury and the municipalities of the Beira region” 218 million meticais.
The government has announced plans to rehabilitate and build more than 3,500 kilometers of roads by 2031, using new technologies to increase the durability of infrastructure in a country where about 80% of the road network remains unpaved.
“This reality presents us with ongoing challenges in the construction, maintenance, and upkeep of road infrastructure, compounded by a shortage of suitable materials in many regions of the country, the high costs of transporting these materials, and the increasingly severe impacts of climate change,” said the deputy director-general of the National Roads Administration (ANE), Miguel Coanai, as quoted in a statement released by the agency on Monday (29).
Through the “More Roads – 2031” program, the government aims to rehabilitate and build more than 3,500 kilometers of roads across all provinces, strengthening transportation corridors for agricultural production, connections between districts and provinces, and the resilience of the national road network in the face of the impacts of climate change.
Source: Lusa
