By Seleoe Nonyane
The Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro, on Tuesday, officiated a sod turning ceremony to mark the commencement of the Mpilo Boulevard Intersections and Links Project.
The M380 million project entails construction of new road links, vehicles’ flyover bridges, underpass, exclusive pedestrian bridges and signalisation.
Speaking at the event, Majoro said the project had been in the pipeline since its conception in 2014, but was delayed by wranglings over the awarding of the tender.
The tender to implement the project was in 2019 awarded to SCIG-SMGG-TIM Joint Venture, a consortium in which a Chinese national who was at the time holding a senior government position was alleged to have interests.
However, another group of companies that had lost the tender to the Chinese-led joint venture filed an urgent court bid in 2020, for the tender award to be overturned claiming there had been been evidence of official interference in the tender process, that bordered on corruption.