Rehabilitation work on National Road No 1 (EN1), the main road in Mozambique, will begin in the second half of next year, the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources has said.
“The first question was really to get the funding, and it is already guaranteed, at least part of it. By 2023, in the second half of the year, work will begin,” Minister Carlos Mesquita said at the 6th Engineering Congress being held in Maputo.
During a visit to Maputo in July, Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi was asked by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi for China’s support for the rehabilitation of EN1, which is the only road linking the south, centre and north of Mozambique and is in very poor condition at several points.
In April, the Mozambican government announced its intention to rehabilitate EN1 and estimated that the work will cost around US$750 million.
The rehabilitation will cover 1,300 kilometres of the 2,477-kilometre road.
The government already obtained half of the funds from the World Bank, which last week approved US$400 million for the Mozambican Safe Roads project, which includes part of the rehabilitation of the EN1.
