The Municipal Council of the city of Matola, in Maputo province, is to spend 250 million meticals (around 3.9 million dollars) repairing roads and access routes affected or destroyed during the passage of tropical storm “Filipo” and the heavy rains that have hit the city in recent weeks. The amount was granted by the World Bank and the work will be carried out by the National Roads Administration (ANE).
The information was shared last Friday, 29 March, in the city of Matola, by the mayor, Júlio Parruque, during his visit to the resealing works on the Zuid-Mutaleia and Dom Bosco-Patrice Lumumba sections.
According to the Agência de Informação de Moçambique (AIM), these are emergency works focusing on three or four roads in the Matola and Machava administrative posts. “We have the road from the Dom Bosco neighbourhood to Patrice. Then we have a branch to Singathela and another to T3. We also have the road that goes from kilometre 15, in Josina Machel (Socimol), to the Nkobe neighbourhood, which is also a very critical point,” explained Júlio Parruque.
In Matola, the mayor added, “we have the avenue of the African Union, known as Estrada Velha, which needs rehabilitation, as well as the road from the Game supermarket area to Zuid. Joaquim Chissano Avenue is also not in a passable condition.”
In this context, Júlio Parruque demanded quality and speed from the contractors and inspectors involved in the work. “We have made specific recommendations to these contractors: firstly, quality; secondly, speed. We want them to increase the number of machines and men, because we’re in a hurry to solve the problem of the roads, but there can be no despatch or haste. The inspector also has to do his best,” said the mayor, who acknowledged that the municipality’s work is not enough and that it is therefore urgent to mobilise more funds to repair damaged infrastructure.
“We need to mobilise more support because the situation is quite challenging. We have to embank several roads and take care of drainage, and for critical roads alone we need 1.4 billion meticals. As for drainage, we need up to 100 million dollars (6.2 billion meticals),” said Júlio Parruque, reiterating that “Matola is in a very critical situation in terms of access roads; residents must help oversee these works”.
On the occasion, the mayor also said that the project to set up a municipal construction site – a tool to help deal with road problems in Matola – was making good progress.
