$22m needed for tollgate upgrade
THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) needs about US$22 million to upgrade all temporary tollgates countrywide to improve revenue collection.
This comes amid allegations of corruption involving Zinara staff especially at temporary tollgates, some of which are mere sheds with no proper security features.
In an interview, Zinara board chairperson Engineer Michael Madanha said the parastatal is facing numerous challenges including poor working conditions for workers at temporary tollgates.
He was speaking after visiting Kazungula Bridge and Vehicle Inspection Department Victoria Falls depot on Saturday as part of a countrywide weeklong tour of infrastructure by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development which ended yesterday.
“The Portfolio Committee was moving around to see how money is used and how we can solve issues of tollgates to ease congestion. What we have proposed to the committee is that the only solution is to put proper permanent tollgates with proper designs. This will include increasing the number of lanes at the tollgates to ease flow of traffic and reduce bottlenecks,” he said.
“As Zinara we will now focus on funding for construction of permanent structures and creation of good working conditions for workers. It costs US$1 million to put up a tollgate because you have to put up structure, offices, fence, install communication and network systems, and extra lanes so that it doesn’t become a bottleneck. We are looking at around 22 temporary tollgates that need to be upgraded countrywide.”
Eng Madanha said the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has already made the designs.
“The Ministry has the designs which actually match the ones on the Plumtree-Mutare road and Zinara is going to allocate resources for construction of the tollgates so that the project is implemented. As Zinara we don’t implement projects because that’s not in our mandate, we just disburse funds,” he said.
“That is work in progress. I wouldn’t put timelines because all will depend on flow of cash into Zinara. As you are aware right now, we are in the Covid-19 period and there are no cars on the road, so that affects us but we want to give priority to this project,” said Eng Madanha.
There have also been concerns from motorists that Zinara was still using old tickets at the toll gates after the recent upward review of toll fees, which they say creates room for corruption and loss of revenue by Government.
Eng Madanha said there is enough surveillance, adding that printing of new tickets is underway hence they are trying to clear the old ones than just disposing of them.
The Portfolio Committee also visited roads funded using Zinara funds and Beitbridge border to assess the situation at the new Limpopo Bridge, one of the major cash cows for the road administration parastatal.
Shurugwi North MP Cde Robson Ronald Nyathi who is the Portfolio Committee vice chairman and was the team leader, said the committee was concerned about the state of tollgates.
He said the country can collect significant revenue that can be used to construct new roads if it upgrades tollgates and improve monitoring.
“Generally, we are happy as a committee because we saw improvements on our roads but all temporary tollgates need a lot of sprucing up. We really need to strategise because our tollgates are causing a lot of bottlenecks hence motorists are by-passing them and Government might end up losing a lot of revenue. There is a real need for us to make sure that all these tollgates are well built. The issue of lack of transparency in terms of payments is going to be a thing of the past once we improve our tollgates system,” said Cde Nyathi.
He commended the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa for its commitment towards improving the country’s road network, saying significant work had been covered in the past two years. — @ncubeleon