RA to engage  Plem Construction Ltd  on  Chapananga Road:  ‘Contractor did not design per procedure’

Roads Authority (RA) chief executive officer Engineer Emmanuel Matapa has said as suggested by Vice-President Saulos Chilima, they will engage Plem Construction Limited on the need to improve the Chikwawa-Chapananga-Mwanza Road project.

Chilima described as substandard works  and ordered the redesigning of the first completed 10 kilometres (km) of the 140-km road.

The Vice-President, who is also Minister of Economic Planning and Development; and Public Sector Reforms, expressed the frustration after inspecting the Chikwawa-Chapanga-Mwanza and Nsanje-Marka road projects in Chikwawa and Nsanje.

In an interview, Matupa said the authority will take the responsibility to advise the consultants to review the design and  rework on it and it will be at the costs of Plem Construction Limited.

He said a consultant does the design,  but the  contractor  can “make some improvement  and submit to us which never happened.”

However, Plem board chairperson Mohan Krishnan said that as contractors they did not  design the road  as per procedures in the bidding process, hence, they are not responsible for the designs.

“A client makes the designs and drawings by engaging the consultant and these are given to the contractor who is successful in a bidding process.

“So, for that reason, I don’t know how far we  can go to do the redesign.”

He said they were not given any chance to revisit the design.

The Chikwawa-Chapanga-Mwanza Road forms a link between Chikwawa and Mwanza, the border district linking Malawi and Mozambique.

Chilima, nonetheless,  expressed satisfaction with the construction works on the Nsanje-Marka Road project which is 65 percent complete and the works are expected to be completed by March 17, 2021.

“The design and the quality is really good, and they have remained with two bridges so far and we are optimistic that it will be completed on time,” said the Veep.

The Nsanje-Marka Road forms part of the North-South Corridor that connects Malawi to the port of Beira and the project is expected to end at the border with Mozambique.

The Vice-President is on a tour of public projects in the Southern Region to track progress and implementation timelines. Besides the Nsanje-Marka and Chikwawa-Chapananga-Mwanza roads, he was also scheduled to inspect the Shire Valley Transformation Project and a teacher training college construction project in Chikwawa.