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Fungai Lupande Mash Central Bureau
The construction of the new police base in Dotito, Mt Darwin, started in 1997 and stalled in 2008 when money ran out but is now back on track after Treasury recently provided $300 million.
The police station will allow the police to move from a rented and dilapidated structure to a decent building. It will be a standard rural police station, with an administration block, holding cells and five three bedroomed houses for officers.
This follows Government’s commitment to improve the welfare of civil servants and accord them dignity and stature in communities they serve, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Monitoring the Implementation of Government Programmes Dr Joram Gumbo said when he visited the construction site to assess progress.
Presently, only five police officers out of 48 have proper official accommodation, with the rest either renting or squatting in the administration block.
However, a holding cell and some houses at the new site have to be demolished after being condemned by engineers due to poor quality, and will be replaced by standard structures.
During his visit to the site, Minister Gumbo said the Second Republic was focusing on completing all the stalled projects.
He applauded the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage for spearheading the resumption of stalled projects under the 100-Day Cycle Programme.
“This resonates with the focus of the Second Republic to complete all on-going and stalled projects.
“This project was started in 1997 with funding from the Government and construction was done by the ZRP construction unit.
“Regrettably the project was stalled in 2008 due to economic challenges.”
Minister Gumbo said the Government was championing infrastructure development with the objective of achieving an upper middle income economy by 2030.
The journey towards Vision 2030 could only be fulfilled by interventions like construction, renovation and rehabilitation of institutional infrastructure prioritised by the Government, said Minister Gumbo.
“In the past, infrastructure was left to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance and non-completion of projects.
“This has negatively contributed to our poor rating on the quality infrastructure index,” he said.
“I urge the Ministry of Home Affairs to expedite completion of this project since they are conducting business from temporary field accommodation structures which are not suitable.”
Commissioner Kudakwashe Mubemi said police officers travel to ZRP Mt Darwin, a distance of 28km, with suspects using their own transport since ZRP Dotito has no vehicles.
Construction of staff houses will alleviate the accommodation challenges at Dotito Police Station and improve working conditions.
Minister Gumbo said he will engage relevant authorities so that the issue of vehicles at the station was addressed.
Online Reporter