Zimbabwe's Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Highway Project

On May 18, 2017, the commencement ceremony was held for the one of Southern Africa's main trunk roads - the 900 km Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu (贝特桥—哈拉雷—奇龙度) highway, also known as the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Highway Project (or North-South Road/Chirundu-Beitbridge Highway Project or Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Dualisation Project). The highway construction cost is US $998 million, and it was financed by Austrian company Geiger International using BOT (build-operate-transfer model) with a limit of 25 years, and the construction is expected to last 3 years with at least 37 new two lane bridges and eight tollgates constructed. The Zimbabwe government reached agreement with Geiger on a $984 million contract. However, the company did not fulfill the terms and obligations, and the contract is being cancelled by the government. The vice president of Zimbabwe pointed out that this project commencement ceremony was held but does not enter the implementation stage. The project contract was granted to Geiger International and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) under Resolution PBR 1397E of 15th March, 2016 as one project. CHEC was to be the main contractor of the project while financing 20% of the Beitbridge-Harare section of the road. Subsequently, the two parties re-engaged the Government through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development indicating that the Beitbridge-Harare section was a Public Private Partnership, while the Harare Chirundu section was to be financed through a loan - hence the project should be formally split. The request was submitted to the State Procurement Board which approved and reissued the project approval under PBR 1397F of 14 July, 2016. The contract between Geiger International and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development was signed in November 2016 and to date the Government has not received any communication for the Financial Closure as required by the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract. In turn, the Ministry, through its letter dated March 15, 2018, has served a notice as provided for by the Concession Contract and such notice period is for 60 days within which the concessionaire may remedy the event by giving rise to the right of termination within the remedy period. Currently, the Government awaits a response from the concessionaire. As a result, no official Chinese financing has been determined and it is unclear whether CHEC is still involved. According to the 2019 Construction Review article, CHEC is not listed as one of the project implementers.

Number of official sources

1

Number of total sources

4