WORK to rehabilitate the Harare-Beitbridge highway is progressing well as most contractors are on course to meet their targets, Government has said.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza said this in an interview yesterday.

“The rehabilitation and dualisation works are going on very well and two of the contractors have since completed about 20km each and we have already given them extensions of 20km each,” he said.

“Overall they are all on target. On Monday I will be visiting three areas — two in Masvingo province and one in Matabeleland South province to assess progress,” Minister Matiza said.

Minister Matiza said roads were the arteries through which the economy pulses.

He said Government, under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, valued development of roads as they linked producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to schools and the sick to hospitals.

The Cabinet minister added that the Harare-Beitbridge highway dualisation project was part of a US$2,7 billion Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu venture covering 971km divided into three sections.

The sections are Beitbridge-Harare with 570km of road and eight toll plazas, Harare-Chirundu section consisting of 342km road and six toll plazas and the Harare ring road covering 59km with three toll plazas.

Road works for the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway consist of phased dualisation, rehabilitation and widening of the existing road from the current seven metres width to Southern Africa Transport and Communications Commission (SATTC) standard of 12,5 metres width, and adding climbing lanes where necessary.

It is estimated that the project will be complete by 2022.

Government is upgrading roads across the country as they are key enablers of economic development as Zimbabwe angles for upper middle income economy status by 2030.

-State Media