Andrew
Sunday Mail Reporter
Government has started constructing state-of-the-art toll plazas along major highways to address congestion at toll-gates, a senior Government official has said.
A toll plaza has more lanes compared to a toll-gate, and allows more vehicles to be cleared at the same time.
This reduces traffic jams at these points.
Currently, there are 33 toll-gates countrywide.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Permanent Secretary Engineer Theodius Chinyanga said the Government was “working on the construction of toll plazas along the major highways as a way of addressing the obtaining congestion at the existing toll-gates”.
He said at least 22 of the 33 toll-gates will be upgraded to toll plazas.
To date, work to upgrade some of these facilities has commenced.
“We have started upgrading the Norton toll-gate and relocating the Shamva toll-gate. Government wants to upgrade 22 toll-gates to state-of-the-art toll plazas in a phased approach.
“The Department of Roads in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has engaged a consultant to carry out the designs of six new toll plazas, while, on the other hand, ZINARA (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) has set aside a budget for the construction of these toll plazas in 2023,” he said.
Eng Chinyanga said turning toll-gates into toll plazas will ensure traffic congestion will be a thing of the past.
Turning to roadworks, Eng Chinyanga said the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) — which was launched by Government for urgent road repairs, and implemented in phases – had covered a considerable number of kilometres of roads countrywide.
“Currently, the Government has provided funding for the implementation of ERRP II for urgent repair works on the road network. To date, the ERRP II has achieved 24 336.9km for rehabilitation and maintenance works,” he said.
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