Maputo — Mozambique's National Road Administration (ANE) has cancelled five contracts covering repair work on about 200 kilometres of roads in the southern province of Inhambane.

According to the ANE provincial delegate, Fernando Dabo, the firms lost their contracts because of poor performance and failures to comply with specifications.

New tenders will now take place to award the work to other companies.

The sections of road affected are:

Zandamela to Chissibuca (16 kilometres);

Morrumbene to Mabaiane (68 kilometres);

Mabote to Tome (40 kilometres);

Mabote to Tissolo (28 kilometres);

Mabote to Chicaiane (25 kilometres).

Fernando Dabo added that a new deadline of October has been set for completing work on the section of road between Inharrime and Maxixe via the district of Panda. Over the last two years, the Zimbabwean contractor has not been able to complete the work due to financial difficulties.

This project had the aim of evaluating the use of calcrete (calcium carbonate) as a cheap local material in road construction.

However, the daily newspaper “Noticias” reports cracks and holes have already appeared in the road. Dabo responded that the contractor is evaluating the quality of its work.

He added that the section of road between Pambara and the Save River along the country's main north-south highway, the EN1, is in a degraded state. This is a problem for ANE, as it does not have funds to repair the road.