This is blamed for the increasing number of road accidents in the region.
The theft of road signs has been linked to the manufacture of household appliances, such as cooking pans, frying pans, among others.
To revert the current situation, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing has launched an awareness campaign involving community leaders, and other influent members of the rural communities as an attempt to bring the situation under control.
ANE managing director, Eusebio Siquela, expressed this concern recently in the town of Beira, capital of Sofala, during an interview to the daily paper "Noticias".
According to Siquela, ANE has already launched an awareness campaign in Sofala, to sensitize the communities, through the district administrators.
Currently, the Mozambican government has embarked on a program for the rehabilitation of country's road network, but the safety could be compromised by the theft of signposts.
"We are making huge efforts to upgrade the national road system, but the theft of signposts is extremely worrying", said Siquela, expressing is satisfaction with the quality of rehabilitation works in Sofala.
Sofala's road system consists of nearly 2,643 kilometers of roads, of which 2,104 are passable all year long, while 539 kilometers others only during the dry season. Of that number, 1,296.5 kilometers are primary roads integrated in the national road system.
At present, the Mozambican government, through ANE, is about to begin with the rehabilitation works of over 5,590 kilometers of the national roads system. This involves 40 projects totalling 786 million USD, under the Road Sector Strategic Plan (RSSP) 2007/2011, recently approved by the government.
Of this number, ANE has already picked 13 projects, covering 1,656 kilometers of the road network, with an estimated cost of 429 million USD, which will be implemented over the three-year period 2007/2009.
SOURCE: AIM
