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Business Reporter
Government has secured about $1,3 million from the African Development Bank for the crafting of transport sector master plan that will be used as a reference in the revival of the country’s transport networks, a Government official said. Transport and Infrastructural Development Permanent Secretary Mr Munesushe Munodawafa told the Zimbabwe Mining and Infrastructure Indaba that plans are at an advanced stage to start work on the plan.
Government, he said, was in the process of appointing a consultant that will assist in coming up with the draft for the master plan.
“We are in the final stages of appointing a consulting house that we will work together with us in crafting the transport master plan for the country.
“There is one that was done before but obviously it’s now outdated so we secured funding after getting assistance from the African Development Bank to the tune of about $1,3 million,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He said Government has gone through an international tender and the idea is that the transport system of the country should see various modes of transport complementing each other.
Mr Munodawafa said they expect to finalise the tendering process and work on the draft should start by December.
“I hope six months down the line we would have completed the first draft. The master plan would be guided by areas of economic activity that will be better served if they have sufficient transport systems,” said Mr Munodawafa.
The master plan will cover rail, road and the aviation. He said one of the key institution that have suffered was the National Railways of Zimbabwe which has recorded a decline in the capacity over the years due to deteriorating infrastructure that was affected by lack of new investment and vandalisation considering that some of the infrastructure is largely copper based.
“We have not recapitalised our national railways and some of our locomotives which had a lifespan of about 20 years, have actually doubled their lifespan which therefore poses a risk to the people and the viability of NRZ.
“We have a fleet of almost 7 000 wagons but again most of those have completed their economic lifespan but we are still using them,” he said.
Government has engaged a number of potential partners to finance the railway system and in 2012 it secured funding from DBSA and they had a project information memorandum which enabled Government to approach potential financiers for recapitalization of NRZ.
What came out of the memorandum is that we need about $460 million for the railway to get back to the minimum of 12 million tonnes per year.
The design capacity of the railway network in Zimbabwe is 18 million tonnes per year, and the best that the country did was 12 million tonnes in 1991.
“If get an injection that will take NRZ back to that level of 1991 and then NRZ will be able to recapitalize itself without the need for external injection,” said Mr Munodawafa.
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