By Seleoe Nonyane
The Maseru City Council (MCC) says the multi-million maloti Mpilo Boulevard Intersections and Links Project has not been abandoned, and will resume once funds are available.
The M380 million road upgrade entails construction of new road links, vehicles’ flyover bridges, underpass, exclusive pedestrian bridges and signalisation.
This after a stoppage of excavation works (towards the end of 2022), which had already kicked off in June last year to mark the commencement of the giant road project in the city of Maseru.
The MCC public relations officer, ‘Makatleho Mosala, says the fact that there is no physical or visible construction work going on at the moment does not necessarily mean the project will not see the light of day.
She said the Mpilo Boulevard upgrade project took longer to commence due to protracted legal battles over the awarding of the tender to implement it.
Mosala said the money that was allocated for the project implementation was not sufficient and, as a result, there was reduction on works to be done.
“The initial plan was that the funds for the project would be disbursed but they have not yet been allocated.
“The initial completed works have been paid for after the issuance of certificates of completion,” she said.
She noted that the project will recommence once the budget has been finalised and funds allocated to local government. However, Mosala said it is still too early to talk about the budget and how much funding will go into the Mpilo Boulevard upgrade project.
The local government department under which the city council falls, is now under one ministry along with the departments of chieftainship, police and home affairs following the reduction of the number of ministries from 37 to 15 when the new government led by the Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) assumed the reins.
Former Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro officially launched the commencement of the project in June 2022.
The project is envisaged to reduce traffic congestion in the city and carnage on the roads. The total budget for the project is M379 036 817 which is funded by the government of Lesotho and the Road Fund. It entails construction of new road links, vehicles’ flyover bridges, underpass, pedestrian bridges and signalisation.
It is carried out by SCIG-SMGG-TIM Joint Venture. Plans for the project began as far back as 2014, but it was delayed by contractors who lodged a court case after failing to secure the tender for the giant project.
The tender to implement the project was conducted in 2019 and 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. They claimed there had been evidence of official interference in the tender process, which bordered on corruption.
The project has been divided into three phases with the upgrading of Mpilo Boulevard as the first phase.
The other stage will be to build new government offices in one place so as to reduce travelling when Basotho require services. The other stage will be providing the private sector with government resident leases for them to be able to enhance the city because the private sector is the backbone of the growth of this country.
“This comes after learning from our banks that there are 4000 people who have requested loans from banks to build houses and we thought as the government we can take the role of giving people those government sites,” Majoro said then.
He had added that the government also intended to upgrade other roads outside the Maseru city.
The Mpilo Boulevard project is envisaged to be implemented over three years. For the first year the government of Lesotho has injected M120million and each year during this three years Road Fund will contribute M70 million towards the project. The rest will come straight from government coffers.
