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Two of the worst roads in Nairobi to be repaired


Ministry of Transport has announced that repair of two dilapidated roads in Nairobi County will start Monday next week.

This comes after Nation published a story on Monday highlighting the status of the roads – Industrial Area Road and East Gate Road – which are in a derelict state.

Transport cabinet secretary Mr James Macharia said that a contractor had already been sent on site to assess the extent of damage and map out what is required to be done, saying that the work on the two roads is part of a project that includes carpeting of roads in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), and across 11 constituencies in Eastlands.

“On Wednesday the contractor, SinoHydro, went on site to inspect the two roads to take stock on what needs to be done. We want the road to be done very quickly as it is in a very bad shape and the work should start by Monday,” said Mr Macharia.

He said that a total of Sh4.1 billion has been set aside for rebuilding of roads in Nairobi, as part of the Nairobi Regeneration plans, where the national government will contribute Sh2.6 billion shillings while the county government of Nairobi will foot the balance in a project that will take three months.

WORK IN PROGRESS

This he said, comes after a State House meeting involving members of Nairobi Regeneration Committee on May 15 where it was agreed that repair of Nairobi roads get urgently fast tracked.

“Work in the city centre has started like in Tom Mboya Street where we are working at night as well as Eastleigh’s 17th Avenue. A lot of work has already started. In all those areas we want the work to be done within three months,” he said.

Mr Macharia said that the project has been divided into three, with the contract for the repair of the roads awarded to three Chinese companies namely Sinohydro Corporation, China Wu Yi and China Road and Bridges Corporation.

“We chose the companies because they are already doing other road projects in Nairobi and also because they have the capacity to do the work,” he said.

The cabinet secretary pointed out that although 85 per cent of the roads belong to the county government, they have decided to chip in as the national government to ease the pain on taxpayers and residents who want the roads done.

“We decided to do it ourselves because we did not want to differentiate between national and county government because taxpayers do not know and do not even care about the differences. They need the road to be done,” he said.