Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela has said the government is committed to developing the country without leaving anyone behind.

Chitotela said Luapula has not been left out because the constituency that the President is targeting is Zambia and Luwingu is part of the country.

The Minister disclosed this when he took a tour of Luwingu district to inspect  the progress of works for the construction of township roads in the district.

He was accompanied by Luwingu District Commissioner, District Council Chairperson and other government officials.

The Minister said the construction of 10 kilometres of township roads in Luwingu is an extension of the Mansa-Luwingu road project which is being implemented by China-Henan. He said the project will also see the construction of drainage systems and street lighting.

And Luwingu District Council Chairperson,  Christine Kalinso, said the district has witnessed massive infrastructure development.

“Since independence people in Luwingu have not seen this kind of development being implemented by the PF Government under the leadership of President Edgar Lungu. We are now seeing an improvement in terms of infrastructure development,” she said.

Meanwhile, Luwingu District Commissioner Patrick Chanda said “Zambia is developing and Luwingu is also developing”.

He said the initial contract was for the construction of only 5 kilometres of township roads in Luwingu but government increased the allocation by an additional 5 kilometres to bring the total length of road constructions to 10 kilometres. He said the contractor China-Henan is currently implementing the first 5 kilometres of the road project while the remaining 5 kilometres will be for opening up the district by creating outlets.

“Basically, Luwingu has got only one outlet, if you are coming from Mansa and Kasama you only enter the town from one outlet. We want to change that, we want to open up Luwingu so that we can have many outlets and the remaining 5 kilometres is intended for that purpose”.

He said the people of Luwingu are very happy because the construction of roads in the district will be of great economic benefit. He said once completed the roads will make it easy for people to transport their farm produce to the market and will reduce on the cost of transport, and civil servants who have bought vehicles will also be happy to drive on improved road condition.