Alain Guillaume Bunyoni kicked start on the 25th of November, 2021 activities to rehabilitate the National Road 3 (NR3) torn-road in a bid to facilitate the transport of goods and people as tattered-road slackens the movements.
Landlocked Burundi relies on roads for its transportation, however, main tarmacs are narrow especially national roads (RN in French acronym) or have been damaged either by heavy rains, erosion, or landslides.
As of today, the government of Burundi has prioritized the rehabilitation of roads mainly RNs as said the Prime Ministry Alain Guillaume Bunyoni.
“One of the main project is to revamp all RNs including remote as well as urban and importantly those that connect provinces. It aims at facilitating the development and circulation of goods”, said the P.M
“Good and practicable roads is an achievable target for the government”, he added.
The roadstub renovation of Gitaza-Rumonge in southern Burundi comes after users cried out its bad state. It takes ages to arrive to destination when heading to Rumonge. Some people prefer taking long journey through Makamba (South-Western).
“I cannot stand 4hours to arrive to Rumonge while if the well-built if well-built it could take me 1h30min to reach my hometown”, said Ruboyi Claude, a businessmen operating to Bujumbura capital city.
Pierre Nshimirimana said that he prefers taking longer trips than sitting at the back of a bus being shaken right-left, front-back, and upfront due to shattered road.
“My heart beats once I know that I will travel to Bujumbura”, he said as he attended the official launch. Drivers must go slowly to avoid accidents, he added.
On the execution plan, the new RN3 will be 11m large and 45km long. It will last for 24 months counting from the 21st of August 2021.
The project has been funded by the African Development Bank via Burundi Roads Authority. It will be executed by SOGEA SATOM and GETRA societies.
SOGEA SATOM will be concerned with tarmac combinations while GETRA will build bridges, gutter, sidewalk, and other tracing.
These two construction entities were warned over by the P.M not meeting deadlines. In addition, he asked the companies in charge of carrying out the project to apply their knowledge, skills and experience to ensure that the quality of the road complies with the anticipated results.
As for the ministry of infrastructures Déogratias Nsanganiyumwami, he urged citizen of the locality to take care of it since it is very expensive. According to him, 1kilometre of tarmac road costs BIF 2billion.
He added that to repair only 1metre distorted can cost up to BIF 2million.
Nsanganiyumwami urged the Burundian population to protect the roads while avoiding cultivating close to the edge and respecting the distance of 6m from the edge to build.
The representative of the African Development Bank, Daniel Ndoye said that the effort comes as to reduce costs of transport in region and further connect Burundi to Tanzania.
“The grant for this project includes, in addition to the rehabilitation work on this section, the construction of a one-stop border post at the Manyovu border in Tanzania and Mugina in Burundi in attempt to reduce the cost of trade”, said Ndoye.
In addition, the RN3 rehabilitation project, Gitaza-Rumonge section, provides for other social infrastructure, including the rehabilitation of the Magara and Minago markets, the Bitare secondary school and the establishment of a tree plant production unit.
The project is estimated to be worth US$66 million as said Daniel Ndoye the representative of the African Development Bank.
However good is the initiative, Faustin Ndikumana, economic expert stressed out that a close follow up of roads projects as many of them have gone in the wind as far as their sustainability lie on the balance.
