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The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is a mega park comprising the Kruger National Park in South Africa, Limpopo National Park in Mozambique and Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe. Great Limpopo and Kruger national parks have a direct road network that links the two parks while Gonarezhou does not have a link with the two making Zimbabwe the least developed between the three countries. The mega park will only become fully operational when animals and people from the three countries are able to move freely between the countries without any restrictions.

Visitors from Kruger and Limpopo are still facing problems in crossing to Gonarezhou national Park due to the lack of a direct road network. Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director general, Dr Morris Mtsambiwa said, "tourists from the two parks need to travel quite a considerable distance from Great Limpopo and then to Ngundu where they will get a direct link to the Gonarezhou national park." "The tourists from South Africa and Mo zambique will get easy access and less fuel is required to travel as it will be one way but they have to travel long distances to get to the Zimbabwean side because there is no direct road link on the Limpopo, and this is a major draw back hence the need to construct the bridge as early as possible," Dr Mtsambiwa said.

In addition he said the authority this year will be focusing more on the construction of the bridge, the position of the bridge has already been approved, the board and the management are still looking for funds for the construction. The Limpopo bridge construction will also benefit South Africa and Mozambique hence the three countries are jointly looking for funding. Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has been given a $100 billion grant from the Government this year and it expected to get additional funding for its projects. The authority so far has received $15 billion from the $100 billion grant, and $10 billion has been disbursed to the Rural Electrif ication Agency to cover the authority's outstanding debt on electricity installations while $5 billion has been used for acquiring equipment for the refurbishment of lodges at Gonarezhou and also servicing of road networks in the park. Construction of the bridge is expected to be complete before the World Cup soccer tournament scheduled for 2010 in South Africa.

Mozambique and South Africa have developed their parks and tourists are already flocking into the two parks with Kruger receiving at least 1.3 million tourists annually. Were it not for delays in the construction of the bridge, Zimbabwe would also be receiving many tourists and benefiting from the park. Last year, the parks authority embarked on a refurbishment programme at Gonarezhou which covered electrical installations, the construction of road networks and the building of infrastructure around the area. The megapark is a 95,000 square-kilometre park with South Africa holding 58 percent, Mozambique 24 percent and Zimbabwe 18 percent.

Read more about the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park here.