Malindi Town is set for a serious facelift after the World Bank granted the Kilifi County Government Ksh 233 million to build a major road, drainage, and carry out solid waste projects.
The projects, which the international lender is funding under the Kenya Urban Support Programme, include the tarmacking of a part of Mtangani Road that results in the Malindi Maximum Prison.
A contractor has already started building the 800 meter Mtangani road which is being upgraded to bitumen standards.
The road stretches from the Absa (formally Barclays) Bank junction to Pearl (Paradise) Hotel where it’ll join the already constructed Slaughter House Road.
The engineer supervising the works, Hatimy Nurein, says the section of the road will cost Ksh 67 million and can entail the development of two cross culverts 900 millimetres and 600 millimetres respectively also as four vertical drains to require care of the drainage problems along the stretch.
Nurein told journalists at the development site that although the Bill of Quantities had given the contractor six months to finish the works, the contractor had indicated he would complete the work within three months.
Malindi Town Manager Silas Ngundo said the project would be a serious breakthrough to motorists and therefore the businessmen along the road because it will solve a perennial problem of flooding that had affected businesses.
The businessmen , led by the chairman of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), Kilifi County, Majid Swaleh, welcomed the project but raised concerns over the standard of the roads being constructed as long as the stretch is susceptible to flooding.
He thanked the govt for fast-tracking the project saying it might ease movement and open up access to institutions and hotels.
Swaleh, however, involved more transparency in implementing projects saying the county administration should come clean on why it decided to create a tarmac road rather than using cabro blocks as earlier indicated.
“We were initially told that the road would be built using cabro blocks, which are more durable, but now we are told it’ll be built using bitumen. This matter must be clarified,” he said.
