In line with the call, the committee
chairman, Dr Norman Sigalla, ordered action be taken against the owner
of JM Petrol Station who has defied an order to stop building the
station. He gave the directives in Dar es Salaam during the committee’s
familiarisation tour of the Kigamboni Bridge.
“We are pleased with the quality and the
time frame for the construction of the bridge as it is expected to
reduce traffic at the Magogoni and Kigamboni ferry,” he said. “I call
upon all the responsible parties to finalise the remaining few things
that have not been completed for the project.”
The owner of JM Petrol Station has
violated a notice given to him to allow for the extension of a 1.5km
road from Kivukoni to Kibada, thus delaying finalisation of the project.
Dr Sigalla urged the public to stop stealing the project’s equipment
such as road signs and other tools.
“The project engineer has informed us
that about four CCTV cameras have been stolen recently. We should not
tolerate such shameful acts,” he noted.
Kigamboni Bridge supervising manager,
Eng Karim Mattaka, said that measures to test the capacity of the bridge
to ensure it can withstand the weight of vehicles, before it is handed
over to government early next month have been successful.
He said all the testing phases of the
bridge had been completed and “we’re now assured that the bridge has met
the required standards.” A total of 216bn/- has been spent on the
ambitious project, and todate 88 per cent of the total cost has already
been injected, Eng Mattaka said.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry
of Works, Transport and Communication, Eng Joseph Nyamuhanga, said that
government is finalising preparation of indicative charges of using the
road.
“On April 16 when the bridge will be
launched, pedestrians will be allowed to use the bridge free of charge
permanently but as for vehicle after two weeks of the tryout and once
the indicated prices are out they would start paying,” added the senior
government official.
A special account will be put in place for all the revenues accumulated from the bridge’s usage.
A member of the parliamentary committee,
Mr Japhary Michael, the Member of Parliament for Moshi Urban (Chadema),
wanted to know whether the cost of the bridge payable by dollars was
going to adapt the former exchange rate of 1,500/- by 2012 or the
prevailing of above 2,000/- of 2016.
Eng Nyamuhanga replied that the amount that has not been covered in dollars will be carried out from the current exchange rate
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