Kazungula Bridge toll gate collects over P200K on first day
Revenue from 108 truck arrivals and 54 departures
Statistics collected on its first day of operation shows the newly- opened Kazungula Bridge and One Stop Border Post ( OSBP) built at a cost of USD 259million will be a highly profitable project, Botswana Guardian can reveal.
Exciting as the first day was, one old truck heading to Zambia spoiled the party as it got stuck on the bridge pathway blocking the passage for an hour.
As an example, the daily statistics collected by the BURS on the first day using the revised rates, specially designed for the bridge shows that a total of P202 980.45 was collected from arrivals on 108 trucks and 54 departures, as well as departure of six small vehicles and six arrivals. Acting Head of Passport and Border Control Division, Joseph Ranting said on Tuesday which was the first day, that his division registered a total combination of 165 arrivals in the country while there were 119 departures with Zambia registering 90 arrivals and 59 departures, while Botswana did 24 departures and nine arrivals. Ranting said in accordance with international cooperation, “Those people entering or leaving the country are not charged any fee for crossing the border using the facility save for foreign nationals who require Visas on arrival at the border”. Acting Director General of BURS, Segolo Lekau said on the first day, movement of the inward traffic on the Botswana side coming from Zambia were 108 trucks. “Remember there were toll fees and we collected about P84 800 in toll fees. As Botswana we crossed 54 trucks, but we could have done more but had glitches as the Zambians were still cleaning and removing the tents that hosted the commemoration out of One Stop Border Post ( OSBP).” According to Lekau, the parking area on each side has the capacity to accommodate 150 trucks. In terms of passenger traffic, there were 90 passengers who departed from the Botswana side to Zambia, while Botswana received 161 passengers.
Lekau said it is clear that currently there is less movement of people and they are mostly moving cargo. “But if you look at the Botswana side, we are now able to cross more vehicles at a time unlike in the past where the ferry used to take over around 50 or less in a day,” she said, adding that the potential is huge for the traffic to increase. Lekau is also aware of the truck heading to Zambia that broke down on the passage trail of the bridge.
“The truck only managed to clear the way after an hour subsequent to being attended by a mechanic”. She added that by Wednesday morning they decided to engage with other stakeholders such as CTO and BDF to be on standby to rescue the situation if need be.
“This is so because as you would imagine, the nearest town with all the facility is on the Botswana side, since Livingstone is about 70 kilometres away”. For the passengers and for security purposes, they are still hoping to get shuttle services as it is not their intention to allow people to walk back and forth over the bridge because they can easily contaminate the area by exchanging money among other things.
“Our aim is to keep the entry open and have everything flowing. Mostly we are looking at people who are coming from the surrounding areas as they normally come for shopping in Botswana”. Lekau called for the change of attitude by Batswana especially those manning the borders, in order to give government the return on investment through providing an uninterrupted service to clients. She added that all service providers need to understand that the more people use the Kazungula corridor, the more revenue generation for the government. Although it initially planned to operate around the clock, for now Botswana and Zambia have agreed to operate for 12 hours per day starting from 6am to 6pm for the first six months and gradually upgrade until they reach their envisaged times of operation.