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"We can see from the map that there is no direct link across the Maputo Bay. It costs a great deal of time and effort to go to the southern side of the bay, which is quite underdeveloped. So the Mozambican government has been planning to build a bridge across the bay for a long time."
Bai Pengyu is the head of the Mozambique Office of the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the company that's behind the construction of the Maputo Bridge.
The three-kilometer bridge connects the Mozambican capital, Maputo, with the area of Katembe on its outskirt, reducing the travel time from two hours to ten minutes.
Besides the bridge itself, CRBC also built a 180-kilometer long road that stretches from Maputo to the country's border with South Africa, reducing the travel time to less than 2 hours from the previous 4 hours.
Bai Pengyu said the team overcame a lot of unexpected challenges during construction.
"The bridge was built within a complicated traffic network. It spans across a port. It stretches over railways and there is airplane route above it. So we had to make precise designs to avoid disrupting the operations of other traffic. The bridge and the link roads cross a populated area, so we also worked very hard on the relocation of those households."
Bai Pengyu said all the hard work was worth it as they are already witnessing the positive impact that the bridge is having on the communities three months after its launch.
"The southern part of Mozambique is witnessing rapid growth since the opening of the bridge. Many commercial buildings are now being constructed along the road. The tourism sector has also been boosted. New figures show that during this past Christmas, over 20-thousand tourists from South Africa travelled to Ponta do Ouro, the tourist resort in southern Mozambique. The number used to be five to six thousand. And an increasing number of people in Maputo also travel to Ponta do Ouro during weekends to have fun."
The company is now working with the local government to come up with a plan for the sustainable development of the southern area.
For CRI, I'm Gao Junya reporting from Maputo, Mozambique.
