The Machipanda border, one of the main gateways between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, is set to enter a new phase of modernisation. The Government plans to expand the Machipanda International Road Terminal, in an intervention intended to facilitate the movement of people and goods and to improve the operating conditions of the border services.
The project was announced this Tuesday in Chimoio, in Manica province, by the spokesman of the Council of Ministers, Salimo Valá, at the end of an ordinary session of that body.
According to the official, the new infrastructure of the Machipanda One-Stop Border Post is to include the construction, from scratch, of a new tourist border post, designed to house the services of the various parties involved in the migration process.
The plan also provides for the construction of housing for civil servants assigned to the border services, in an attempt to create better working and living conditions for the professionals posted to the area.
But the intervention will not be limited to administrative buildings. According to Salimo Valá, the road lanes are also to be widened, and a new bridge built over the Machipanda River, measures that should increase traffic capacity at a border marked by heavy movement of people and goods.
The Executive believes the concession will make it possible to reduce the pressure currently seen in the border area and raise the quality of the services provided to citizens of Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
“This concession will bring added value to the current situation, it will ease congestion, but it will also make it possible to improve the services provided for the benefit of citizens of the two countries who use the borders,” said Salimo Valá.
