Government intends to spend P580 million over the next two financial years on rebuilding the 300-kilometre road, the dilapidated but critical link that has been the focus of transport infrastructure grievances over the years.

According to an appendix to the draft Transitional National Development Plan, government intends to spend P260 million rebuilding the road in 2023-24 and another P320 million in the 2024-25 financial year.

The transitional NDP, which has been tabled before Members of Parliament for debate, is meant to ensure that the next NDP starts at the same time as the tenure of the next political administration, after the 2024 elections.

The Nata-Maun road is part of P8.5 billion proposed to be spent on road infrastructure projects in the next two financial years under the transitional NDP.

“The programme aims to improve the national road infrastructure,” reads a note accompanying the proposals on the broader road infrastructure budget.

“It will cover the construction, reconstruction and expansion of the road network, thereby providing alternative routes, connecting production areas with market centres and facilitating movement of goods locally and internationally. This will stimulate economic activity and value chain development,” further says the report. According to the transitional NDP, the projects will be delivered through the use of new construction methods and technologies such as In-Situ Cold Recycling and New Gravel Stabilisation. Both methods are relatively new and involve the use of materials already available on the older road.

The latest developments around the Nata-Maun road follow the breakdown in 2020 of negotiations between government and China for a loan that would have covered the rebuilding of the road.

As reported previously by Mmegi, the two sides deadlocked over the terms of the agreement, particularly the choice of main contractor for the project. Negotiations had run from June 2020 and collapsed without agreement later in the year,.

China had provided a P3.4 million grant in May 2019 to fund the road’s feasibility study, in anticipation of negotiations towards the loan. Botswana had secured a pledge of P10.2 billion in concessional loans from China after government’s participation at the Forum for China Africa Cooperation in September 2018. The Chinese government had also written off P80 million in existing debt owed by Botswana.

The concessional loans were expected to be used in roads, rail and other critical infrastructure.

“When we could not agree on the terms, we noted that the project was urgent and we could not go back and forth with the Chinese on the terms,” Finance Ministry permanent secretary, Wilfred Mandlebe told a parliamentary committee previously.

“The decision was that we use our own resources and we are going to come to Parliament with a supplementary budget to fund that. The Chinese funding was one of the possible sources of funding, but it was taking long,” he added.

Meanwhile, the transitional NDP is also proposing P1.8 billion for reconstruction of the Francistown to Nata road over the next two financial years.

The entire Francistown-Nata-Maun route is a major economic corridor to the tourism heartland and the economic hub of Ngami district.