adminAuxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (Zinara) has allocated Bulawayo City Council $200,000 for the rehabilitation of roads. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Cde Obert Mpofu revealed this in the National Assembly on Wednesday during Parliament’s question time following a question posed by Emganwini MP Phelela Masuku who enquired about the availability of funds to fix street lights in Bulawayo.
Cde Mpofu said he hopes that the local authority would repair some street lights that are not functioning before the end of the year when it receives more funds.
“The official position is that Zinara has availed $224, 809,00 funding to Bulawayo City Council this year for the first quarter for routine maintenance of its roads. There is a lot of activity taking place in Bulawayo in terms of road rehabilitation and it’s quite commendable. The city is doing a wonderful job with these interventions,” said Cde Mpofu.
“The prioritisation of the activities carried out which include pothole patching and street lighting repair rests with the road authority, which in this case is the Bulawayo City Council.”
The minister, however added that lack of funds was affecting the maintenance of roads in most provinces.
He said the Plumtree-Tsholotsho road, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Roads requires re-gravelling, but the repair work requires a substantial amount of funding that has not yet been availed.
He said re-gravelling on that road will be carried out when the required funds have been provided.
“We also have a request from the Tsholotsho community to have that road tolled but that’s a complicated request which we’re consulting on. However, we would like to thank the Tsholotsho community for being proactive and quite progressive in their request,” said the minister.
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