BY SABELO GWEBU
MBABANE– Over half a billion Emalangeni, E514 million to be precise, has been set aside strictly for road rehabilitation, maintenance and feeder roads upgrade in the 2023/24 budget tabled by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg.
Rijkenberg acknowledged that the year 2022 has brought about the delivery of improved road infrastructure, particularly along the major trunk route in the country, the freeway from Ngwenya border through the capital city, down to the industrial town and the hub of the country all the way to the King Mswati III International Airport.
The massive investment in this infrastructure according to the minister will improve the country’s road travel experience for many years to come.
“Notwithstanding this great milestone, there remain two major challenges in this space, and these are a comprehensive maintenance programme and the improvement of feeder roads. The Shiselweni roads in particular have rendered some of the places as ‘neglected’ due to non-improvement.
Significant investment is required to make these improvements and for the country to derive ‘shared growth’ and therefore E514 million has been budgeted for road rehabilitation, maintenance 23 and feeder road upgrades. This is significantly more than what has been ever spent on road maintenance and rehabilitation,” he said.
Last week, the Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) announced that the damage caused by the recent persistent rains across the country amounted to E45 million. The figures are entailed in the recent comprehensive report and already E8 million has been committed by government to cater for the current damage and potential challenges. The country has been experiencing Torrential rainfall since February 7, causing extensive damage to infrastructure especially roads, bridges and houses.
