The Malawi Roads Authority (MRA) is inviting proposals for consultancy services for the upgrading of the 82 km Thyolo–Thekerani–Mulanje–Bangula road, in the south of the country, and the Jenda–Edingeni road, in the northern region, to Class 1 bitumen standard.
The authority says interested bidders may obtain request-for-proposal documents and further information from its head office in Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, on payment of a nonrefundable fee of MK10 000 (about $15).
It says proposals must be delivered to the authority’s offices by April 8, pointing out that electronic bidding will not be permitted.
MRA CEO Trevor Hiwa says the authority is in the process of engaging another contractor for the Thyolo–Thekerani–Muona–Bangula road after a contract with Kuwaiti contractor MA Kharafi was terminated in December 2014.
The MRA also terminated another contract with MA Kharafi – for the construction of the 102 km Zomba–Jali–Phalombe–Chitakale road, in southern Malawi – and the process to engage another contractor for this road project is also under way.
The Malawi government is financing the road projects using the proceeds of loans obtained from several Arab financiers, including the Kuwaiti Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic Development and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund.
Malawi, whose economic mainstay is agriculture, has earmarked the development of roads as a priority to facilitate easy transportation of agricultural commodities.