TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The US$60m Egodini Mall project in Bulawayo is on course with the contractor set to complete the project by April this year.
This comes after the contractor, Terracotta Trading Limited, which won the tender to develop the Basch Street project popularly known as Egodini in 2016, had missed several deadlines.
“The project is on course now. Our projections are that we will complete the taxi rank in mid-April. ZUPCO taxis and ZUPCO buses will then come back on site and we will continue other works focusing on the informal traders,” Terracotta director, Thulani Moyo, said.
He added: “So much work has been done on site. We call on stakeholders to exercise patience as we will be able to start building soon.”
Terracotta won the tender to upgrade Basch Street terminus into a regional public transport hub in 2012 ahead of two other companies.
The project was said to cost US$60m and in March 2018 vendors and public transport operators were relocated to make way for the first phase of the project which was expected to be completed by November 2019.
Moyo said vending stalls for informal traders will be built next month and will be done by April 29.
“The area for informal traders which measures 7 250 square metres will be done from March 14 to May 13, while 98,7 tonnes of steel works will be put up from January 10 to May 27, this year. Other construction work at the site will include a ZUPCO rank to be built from March 7 to April 8,” he said.
Moyo said the company faced difficulties at the beginning.
Bulawayo Town clerk Christopher Dube said there has been pressure from different stakeholders on the completion of the mall.
“There have been so many timelines given by the developer which have been varied. It’s a contract, but it can be varied provided the contractor can come with reasonable justification for extension of time. There is immense pressure from stakeholders starting with the residents, the transport companies, vendors and indeed government on what is going on.
The problem we are having is when people ask us, we find it difficult to disclose that information because this is a contractual obligation. We cannot give any information as and when people want it, “he said.
Dube added: “We have made it clear to the contractor that those targets that we have given to him have to be met, otherwise it will give us too much pressure. Not only us as a partner, but them as well. They said they will stick to their timings and we hope that they do so.”
