Toll gates reap K2.3bn

NEARLY K2.3 billion has been collected from toll stations from the time the national road tolling programme started in 2013, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela has announced.

Mr Chitotela said the fees had been collected from tolls inland, ports of entry and weighbridge stations across the country.

Mr Chitotela said in a statement issued by the ministry’s public relations officer Jeff %anda that between November and December 2013, K44, 431.00 was collected and K296, 834.00 in 2014 while K428, 165.00 was collected in 2015.

In 2016 K464, 777.00 was collected and K667, 952.02 in 2017 and that a total of K387, 830.24 was collected by June this year, all totaling K2, 289,989.26

Mr Chitotela said that the funds had been channeled towards road construction, road maintenance and rehabilitation of public roads as required by law.

"Of the money collected, K504.2 million has gone to periodic and routine road maintenance, K730.9 million to road rehabilitation and upgrading, K488 million to road safety and expenditure while K260.7 million has been given to NAPSA for loan repayment.

He said that the tolls had also been collected from nine Ports of Entry and four gazetted weighbridges across the country.

³The *overnment of President Edgar Lungu is constructing additional Inland Toll Stations that are at different levels of completion across the country. Members of the public will be informed as soon as construction works have been completed in readiness for road tolling,” he said.

+e said *overnment¶s target this year was to collect K845 million and this would be achieved by expanding the road tolling footprint.

And Mr Chitotela has maintained that *overnment was committed to rehabilitate the entire 72km of the Kafue - Mazabuka Road,

+e said the *overnment in 201 officially reTuested the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance the rehabilitation of the Kafue - Mazabuka Road.

The AfDB had approved approximately US$ 35 million towards the cost of construction and supervision services, he said.

He said that the procurement process for both the Consultant and Contractor had since started and was envisaged to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2018.

+e said that the financing was also expected to cover costs for rehabilitation of the Chikankata turnoff to Mazabuka, Construction of the Mazabuka Bypass, and rehabilitation of the Mazabuka to Monze road.

He added that due to the poor state of the road and the need to facilitate continuous Àow of traffic, the Road 'evelopment Agency (RDA) in December 2017 engaged Messrs Inyatsi Roads Zambia Limited to carry out ‘holding maintenance’ pending full rehabilitation of the road.

The holding maintenance works were valued at K65, 960,308.56 (VAT inclusive) and were expected to be completed in December 20I8, he said.

He said Inyatsi was reconstructing approximately 13km of severely damaged sections of the road, application of a slurry seal on a total length of approximately 29km and pothole patching along the entire 72km stretch.

So far the contractor had done about 22 percent of the works, Mr Chitotela said.