admin
Senior Reporter
BEITBRIDGE Town Council has embarked on a massive roads rehabilitation and greening programme aimed at sprucing up the image of the border town ahead of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly later this month.In an interview on Wednesday, the town secretary, Dr Sipho Singo, said a number of the delegates to the General Assembly were expected to pass through the border town hence the decision to spruce up the town.
“As a border town, we expect to handle an influx of tourists who will be visiting the country for the UNWTO General Assembly in Victoria Falls and Livingstone in Zambia. In light of this we have therefore started working on several projects to uplift the face of our town taking into cognisance that we are the country’s shop window.
“We are rehabilitating our roads as well as greening the town by planting trees along major highways so that we regenerate the face of Beitbridge,” he said.
Dr Singo said Bietbridge being the border town gives the visitors the first impression of the country.
He said a $1 million partnership deal with Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) to upgrade the town’s road network came at the most opportune time.
“We have entered into a partnership with Zinara so that we create lop roads around Beitbridge town as a way of decongesting the main road leading to the border post,” he said.
The road leading to the border post is extremely busy, especially during peak periods as it also caters for traffic passing through the town resulting in congestion.
“Since the country will be hosting an international event we anticipate an increase in the volume of traffic passing through Beitbridge Border Post,” said Dr Singo.
In January, the border town experienced long winding queues of traffic that stretched for several kilometres and in the process blocking the smooth flow of local traffic.
“The idea is to facilitate movement of tourists passing through Beitbridge Border Post to Victoria Falls and I want to make it clear that this project is also aimed at promoting tourism since we are the gateway to Zimbabwe and the Sadc region,” he said.
Online Reporter