The South African concessionaire TRAC announced on Thursday (23) an investment of 85.7 million dollars (5.4 billion meticals) to rehabilitate National Road Number Four (N4), one of the most important roads in Mozambique, which links Maputo, in the south of the country, to the border at Ressano Garcia, reports Lusa.
In a statement, the company said that the work will begin in February and will last 24 months, for the ‘rehabilitation and widening’ of the section between Ressano Garcia, the country’s main border with South Africa, and the centre of Tchumene, in Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, covering 66 kilometres.
‘As the N4 is a road with heavy traffic, it requires continuous maintenance and rehabilitation,’ explains TRAC, pointing out that the management of that road, which it is taking over, resulted from “an international tender in which the winning concessionaire mobilised private funding for the design, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation and management of the road”.
TRAC previously announced the resumption, as of this Thursday, of toll collection on the Maputo toll road, which had been suspended in recent weeks following the post-election protests.
‘Toll fees finance the construction, modernisation and maintenance of roads, guaranteeing international standards,’ the announcement reads.
Former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane called in December, during the post-election protests in the country – which caused more than 300 deaths in clashes with the police – for tolls not to be paid and, after the destruction and vandalisation of some collection booths, several were closed without receiving payments, including on the N4.
Meanwhile, in a document published on Tuesday with 30 measures he is demanding for the next 100 days, Mondlane, who does not recognise the official results of the 9 October general elections, once again called for tolls not to be charged throughout Mozambican territory.
‘On the N4, the tolls, given the time they have been in force, have been profitable in relation to the investment made,’ says the document signed by Venâncio Mondlane, demanding the extension of the non-payment of tolls during this period, also claiming that on several toll roads in the country “there was no public consultation” on this charge and “the principle of the alternative route was not respected”.
‘Many of the roads are in a disastrous state, which offends the idea of benefiting from services,’ he emphasised.
