[2019-11-15] Mozambican president inaugurates road rebuilt by Chinese company

Source: Macauhub

National Road No 6, which connects the port city of Beira to the village of Machipanda, on the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, was inaugurated on Thursday by the President of the Republic, after the contractor, China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group ) Co., Ltd completed the repair and expansion works.

Costing US$410 million, financed by the China Export and Import Bank and the Government of Mozambique, the works began on 1 April, 2015 and were due to end on 31 March, 2018 but were delayed due to lack of funds to relocate households and businesses in the Inchope area.

“The road between the coastal town of Beira and the village of Machipanda, along with the Vanduzi-Changara-Zóbwè road on the Malawian border, is a determining factor in the centre of the country and in the region, due to the socio-economic impact it has on Mozambique and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, with which it interconnects,” said President Filipe Nyusi, quoted by the AIM news agency.

The President recalled that in the recent past traffic on that road was restricted due to its poor state of repair, as well as its limited width and poor quality that “limited the flow of people and goods, reducing the economic performance of this region of the country. in particular and Mozambique in general.”

Nyusi also said that from now on, it will no longer take seven hours to travel the 288 kilometres from Beira to Machipanda, and that time has now decreased to four hours. “In addition to increasing the safety and comfort of users, the risk of breakdowns, robberies and thefts and the settlements crossed by this road benefit from easy access to different types of services,” he said.