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Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter—
The government is mooting introducing entry fees at the country’s border posts to boost revenue for the construction and rehabilitation of roads, a Cabinet Minister has said. Speaking to Business Chronicle on the sidelines of a tour in Bulawayo to assess the condition of roads in Matabeleland region on Friday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo said plans were underway to introduce entry fees at the ports of entry as part of measures to raise funding for the rehabilitation and dualisation of roads.
The country has more than 10 entry points and these include Beitbridge, Plumtree, Kazungula, Chirundu, Forbes, Mukumbura, Victoria Falls and Nyamapanda.
“We’re looking at these border posts as places where we can get some money through entry fees which can then be used to fund rehabilitation and improvements of our road network,” he said. The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) was established to mobilise resources for roads construction and rehabilitation in both rural and urban areas.
“The government has limited resources because of its competing priorities hence it established Zinara to solely mobilise resources for road construction and improvement of the road network,” said Cde Gumbo.
He said road networks across the country were in a bad state and as such billions of dollars were required to upgrade the roads. Against this background, the government will soon enter into Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) arrangement to facilitate the rehabilitation of the roads and dualisation of the major highways.
Last year the government floated tenders seeking investors to undertake rehabilitation and dualisation of major highways under the build, operate and transfer arrangement. The roads earmarked for dualisation include the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls, Harare-Chirundu, Harare-Beitbridge and Harare-Nyamapanda.
derick.khumalo