Works Minister Dr John Magufuli has urged adherence to professional ethics and integrity as over 530bn/- worth of road construction projects for Dodoma, Manyara, Ruvuma and Mtwara regions were signed in Dar es Salaam.
TANROADS CEO Eng. Patrick Mfugale (seated right) and the Assistant President and Chief Representative in Tanzania for China Henan International Cooperation Group Company Ltd, Mr Guo Zhijian sign the agreement of constructing 99.35-kilometre Mayamaya-Mela Road in Dar es Salaam. The ceremony was witnessed by the Minister for Works, Dr John Magufuli (standing first right).Dr Magufuli at the same time cautioned service providers that failure to adhere to ethics would lead to contract termination. The projects to be implemented include construction of Dodoma-Babati (188.1) and Tunduru-Mangaka-Mtambaswala (202.5km) to tarmac level.
The contract was signed by TANROADS Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Patrick Mfugale on behalf of the government and the contractors –China Henan International Cooperation Company Ltd (CHICO), China Railway Seventh Group Company Ltd and the Sichuan Road and Bridge (Group) Corporation Ltd.
The consultation service contract was signed between the government and a local company, Crown TECH-Consult Limited and the German- based H.P Gauff Inginieure Gmbh & KG-JBG.
Out of 538.9bn/- set aside for the projects, 65.8 per cent was borrowed from Africa Development Bank (AfDB), 29.2 per cent from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), while the remaining five per cent comes from the internal sources.
Dr Magufuli directed the contractors and consultants to immediately report to site and start actual ground works, instead of waiting until the mobilisation process is completed, insisting that the projects must be fast-tracked.
“If you think you are not going to perform the work to the standard required, please don’t sign the contract. Signing means commitment and commitment means work,” he noted, adding that there were more competent contractors who would do the work should they fail to make it.
Dr Magufuli said Tanzanian professionals in those areas have been waiting for the road projects for over 50 years and thus it was illogical to wait for six months for the mobilisation process to take place before embarking on construction work.
He also stuck to his guns over adherence to laws by ordering TANROADS regional managers to ensure that vehicles with a maximum of 56-tonne loads were the ones allowed to use the roads.
“Vehicles with a maximum of 56-tonne loads were the ones allowed to use the roads, but surprisingly, some trucks were being overloaded to over 90; please deal with this dishonest group of people for damaging our roads which cost us billions of shillings to build,” he said, vowing that until his death, he will stand for laws and regulations without fearing anyone.
Earlier, when briefing the well-attended signing ceremony, which attracted a number of TANROADS regional managers, MPs, works ministry officials and development partners’ representatives, TANROADS Chief Eng. Mfugale said that the projects were being implemented under Road Sector Support Project II and were to be finished between 24 and 36 months.
Eng. Mfugale said that to simplify the work, the projects were divided into sub-projects with every sub-project being given a deadline for completion.
The sub-projects, according to Eng. Mfugale, are Mayamaya- Mela (99.35km), which is under CHICO (contractor) and Crown TECH-Consult Ltd (Consultant) and is set to be implemented at the cost of 102.9bn/-, Mela- Bonga (88.8KM) under China Railway Seventh Group Company Ltd (Contractor) and H.P Gauff Inginieure Gmbh & KG-JBG (consultant) at the cost of 88.4bn/- and 2,357,200 Euros respectively.
Another sub-project is Mangaka-Mtambaswala (65.5km), which is under Sichuan Road and Bridge (Group) Corporation Ltd at the cost of 59.7bn/-.
“The contract for the construction of Tunduru- Nakapanya and Nakapanya— Mangaka and that of Tunduru— Mangaka-Mtambaswala will be inked after a no objection from AfDB,” Eng. Mfugale said. Nanyumbu MP (CCM), Mr Dunstan Mkapa, said that the projects to be implemented were necessary for economic growth in the southern corridor, which has been growing at a very low pace compared to other zones due to poor infrastructure.
Another MP who also attended the ceremony, Mr Moses Machali (Kasulu Urban-NCCR-Mageuzi), said that it was also mandatory for the government to closely follow up on the implementation of the projects as some contractors ‘’have been performing very poorly.’’
By CHRISTOPHER MAJALIWA, Tanzania Daily News
