New road grader for Zvimba
THE Zvimba Rural District Council received a brand-new road grader that was procured using internally generated funds.
The local authority now has two high-performance graders, which are commonly used in the construction and maintenance of dirt and gravel roads.
The first one was delivered earlier this year.
The council plans to have at least one grader for each of the four National Assembly constituencies under the district — Zvimba North; West; East and South.
In an interview, the council’s chief executive officer, Mr Enias Chidakwa, said procurement of the graders would help address road maintenance challenges in the district.
“As you know, one of our responsibilities is to make sure the roads in the district are navigable.
“As such, it has always been in our plan to make sure we are fully equipped on that front so that there won’t be challenges related to road maintenance.
“We now have two new graders, including the one at the Banket Town Board, which we bought early this year,” he said.
Zvimba, he said, was also expecting to take delivery of two more graders that will be purchased using funding from Government.
“There are two more graders that we are also supposed to receive,” he said.
“There is one that we will purchase using devolution funds, while the other one will be purchased courtesy of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, through the Pelgin initiative.
“Once delivered, the district will be fully equipped to meet its road maintenance requirements.”
Pelgin Consulting Services is a local earthmoving equipment supplier.
The council, he added, already has three old graders that are currently being repaired.
“As a council, we are targeting repairing 600 kilometres of our road network. So far, at least 530 kilometres have been attended to.”
Council, he said, was also set to receive additional funding from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration for road maintenance, under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).
Road development work under the ERRP is currently underway in Nyabira, Sandton, Furview and Leengate, among other areas.