Transporters blast Zimra over poor border roads

due to the bad state of the roads.
In separate interviews, the truckers accused Zimra of employing a business as usual attitude rather than attending to their concerns.
The worst damaged road is the one on the arrivals commercial side near the vehicle inspection depot where there is a high volume of inbound trucks.
The road was built to separate haulage traffic from other traffic such as private cars and buses which access the border as a way of reducing congestion.
An average of 3 000 trucks pass through Beitbridge Border Post each day. A total of five trucks have been involved in accidents around this area between June and July this year.
A visit to the border post revealed that there are potholes and sharp curves on the road where trucks meander into the commercial section and has not been attended to.
“We have approached the Zimra management at the Beitbridge offices to act on the matter and they are reluctant to attend to our concerns.
“We are now appealing to Government for assistance before we continue to lose our vehicles and business.
“It is worrying that we are paying all the levies and fees for using the roads, but not enough is being done to upgrade the same roads.
“Beitbridge is regarded as one of the busiest inland border posts in Africa and a cash cow for Zimra but the state of affairs here is very much deplorable,” said John Dhlakama.
A Malawian truck driver, Abu Milanzi, said the area had become a nightmare for most of them and called on Zimra to urgently act on the issue.
The upgrading of the road around the com-                        mercial section has been on the cards since Zimra’s inception in 2001 but work has been progressing at a snail’s pace.
The project would have seen traffic diverted into three streams for the different vehicle categories.
Old buildings were set to be replaced with new ones.
A 5km road would have been constructed as well as 250 free standing houses for staff.
Early this year a US$97 million project to upgrade the border post was recently shelved, leaving Zimra stuck with its old system.
Travellers will also have to endure congestion and inconveniences a little longer as the mega project would have transformed the place into a state-of-the-art border post.
The project, which was due to be built under a Public-Private Partnership, would have seen a major facelift for Beitbridge but that has remained a pipeline dream.
An agreement by the investor was entered into involving the ministries of Finance, Home Affairs, Regional Integration and International Co-operation, Local Government, Rural and Urban Development and Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced in December last year during a tour of the border post that Government had terminated the contract. He said the contracted company had failed to start work within the agreed 14 months.
Efforts to get a comment from Zimra over the past few weeks have been fruitless.