The Beira-Zimbabwe mega road upgrade project has kicked off with the construction of a second bridge over River Pungue.

The construction of the bridge will help form a link between the districts of Dondo and Nhamatanda in the central Mozambican province of Sofala.

Once completed the bridge will have two lanes and be 250 metres long.

The project also includes work on the rehabilitation and upgrading of a 288 kilometre road between the port of Beira and border town of Machipanda and neighbouring Zimbabwe according to spokesman of the Provincial Directorate of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources in Sofala, José Luis.

The Machipanda -Inhamizua link road is designed to have two lanes while the Inhamizua-Beira four lanes.

Construction on the Beira-Zimbabwe road project  will involve two weigh bridges, three toll plazas, six police checkpoints and 50 public transport stops, and will involve a combined length of 1 652 meters, along with seven aqueducts.

Jose Luis said the National Road Number Six (EN6) road project is expected to take three years and it’s expected to take a total of $410 million, which was provided by the government of Mozambique and the bank of China, Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im).

According to the contractor the Beira-Zimbabwe road will become a toll road with its gates at Dondo and Chimonjo and all motorists must pay for the tolls to be fixed.

The road construction project will also open landlocked countries that use the port of Beira for foreign trade. These countries are Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and DR Congo.

When the Beira-Zimbabwe road project is complete, the country is expecting an average daily traffic of more than 3 000 vehicles.