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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
Civil works for the rehabilitation of the 113km Lutumba –Tshikwalakwala road, which links Beitbridge and Chiredzi districts is set to resume next week after the Government struck a deal with a private contractor.

Beitbridge East legislator Cde Albert Nguluvhe said the Government through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development decided to intervene following numerous appeals by community leaders.

The road had not received attention for the past two decades and is extensively damaged due to wear and tear and the situation had been made worse by successive heavy rains.

“Following our numerous pleas, the Government has engaged a private road construction company to rehabilitate the Lutumba to Tshikwalakwala road which is in a bad state.

“We expect civil works to begin next week and our hope as community leaders is that during the course of the work many people living along the road will get employed,” said Cde Nguluvhe.

He said most of the roads in the constituency were in bad condition, especially those falling under the Beitbridge Rural District Council.

The legislator said only the road linking Peters -Tshabili-Lukange-Dite -Panda -Mine and Beitbridge which was recently rehabilitated by the District Development Fund (DDF), was in good condition.

The bad state of the road, he said, had created perennial transport woes for villagers in the constituency who were now at the mercy of the few private transporters plying the area.

“We hope that we may have public transporters operating again on this road upon completion of civil works,” said Cde Nguluvhe.

He said a good road network helps swift operations of government programs, which include drought relief, seed and farming implements distribution, school feeding monitoring, and disease control among others.

Cde Nguluvhe urged development agencies among them; the Beitbridge Rural District Council, the District Development Fund, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development to constantly maintain roads falling under their portfolios to enhance accessibility to most remote parts around the district.

It is understood that horticulture farmers living along the road have been facing difficulties in transporting their produce to Beitbridge urban.

The Lutumba to Tshikwalakwala road also services nine business centers, Beitbridge Colliery Mine, two clinics and Chituripasi police station, and two major irrigation schemes which include; Tshikwalakwala and Tshamaswiswi, across six wards with an estimated population of over 50 000 people.

Further, it lies on the Greater Limpopo Trans-Frontier Conservation Area which involved Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. — @tupeyo.