Government has expressed happiness at the progress of works on the 175 Kilometer stretch of the Mansa-Luwingu road.
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Chishimba Kambwili expressed happiness after driving on the 90 Kilometer completed stretch from Mansa and praised the contractor China Henan Chicco for the quality of works.
Mr. Kambwili said the road is important as a business link between the Copperbelt and Northern provinces.
He said the project was a good example of the realization of the link-Zambia 2000 started by the late president Sata and shows that projects are on course.
Mr. Kambwili said the road will be a good business route for the people of Luapula which they can use to transport their agriculture produce.
And The Minister explained that government wants to build capacity in the local contractors by ensuring that they got 40 per cent of the major projects are sub-contracted in order to create an avenue for transfer of technology from foreign contractors to local contractors so that eventually the local contractors could also handle big projects with excellence in meeting the quality benchmarks.
Mr. Kambwili said it is government policy to build capacity in local contractors so that skills could be resident in the local people to handle big projects for the development of the country.
And China Henan Chicco Laboratory Engineer Zhang Lei disclosed that out of the 175 kilometers of the project, 90kilometers has been completed while a stretch of 100 kilometers has seen earth works.
Zhang Lei disclosed that over 800 Zambians are employed in the project.
And Mansa Diocese Bishop Patrick Chisanga commended government for the progress on Mansa-Luwingu Road.
The Bishop said the road is vital to the province because it is connecting the region with the northern part of Zambia and goes beyond into Tanzania and East Africa.