WORK to rehabilitate the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway has begun, with a dilapidated 200km stretch between the two cities being prepared for total reconstruction.
According to Transport Minister Felix Mhona, funds have been released for the total rehabilitation of the major highway while Bitumen World has been identified as a partner.
The contracting company is already working on critical sections of the road that had been making a trip to Victoria Falls longer than it should have been.
Reconstruction of the entire road, which stretches to Beitbridge via Bulawayo, will take 36 months according to Mhona.
"Government has shifted attention to the Beit Bridge - Victoria Falls highway," said Mhona.
"We know that of the 760km almost 200km is beyond pothole patching and requires complete reconstruction.
"The funding has been availed and the contractor has said within a period of 36 months the entire road will be done."
Zimbabwe's roads were declared a state of disaster, with a programme for their rehabilitation launched in 2021; the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) which ends in December 2026.
The Bulawayo - Victoria Falls highway is of major concern seeing as it leads to Zimbabwe's main tourist attraction.
Rehabilitation of the Victoria Falls highway had been put on hold for years, with communities living along the whole stretch raising concerns.
Businesses were also being affected as trucks and buses would at times abandon the highway for dirt roads in Matebeleland bushes.
The urgent need to rehabilitate this road was further emphasised in Parliament last week by Senator Priscah Mupfumira who highlighted that Zimbabwe will for the first time be hosting the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) this winter.
Such a global event, Mupfumira said, might not be held in Zimbabwe ever again. She expressed fear that the country's poor road network might just humiliate government.
