Govt rehabilitates Rusape roads

Lovemore Kadzura
Rusape Correspondent

THREE major and busiest gravel roads in Rusape will early next year tarred by the Government under the third phase of Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).

The decision to take over the roads by Government came as a huge relief to the local authority which last tarred roads decades ago.

In Rusape, only old Vengere, the Central Business District and parts of industrial areas had tarred roads.

All residential areas in the town have gravel roads.

Rusape Town chairman, Councillor Lyton Sithole, said Government took over the tarring of 5,8km of the town’s roads, and preliminary works have since commenced.

“Under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme, Government has taken over three roads for tarring. The roads that are being tarred are Vengere Loop (3,5km), Castle Base – Magamba Extension (1,1km) and Mutare Road – Old Magamba Road (1,25km).

“The contractors are now on the ground and work has commenced to do spot gravelling. The tarring of these roads will change the face of our town.

‘‘Council incurred a lot of expenses maintaining these gravel roads. We hope the Government will take over more roads in future money disbursement cycles,” said Cllr Sithole.

He said the local authority managed to acquire vital roads maintenance equipment this year which will go a long way in rehabilitating their road network.

“This year we have acquired a grader ($41m), a front end loader ($17m), and a tipper for $9m. We used our own resources to purchase this equipment. Council was having serious in maintaining roads, but this is going to be a thing of the past,” said Cllr Sithole.