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He said by April, unlicensed vehicles would not be able to use the country’s highways, as the computerised tollgate system that is expected to be operational, then, would weed them out.
Mr Chitukutuku said Zinara would only start penalising motorists for late renewal of vehicle registration for the just-expired term after 30 days.
The deadline lapsed on 31 January and the penalty is 100 percent of the arrears, plus a $5 administration fee.
“We have 419 000 vehicles in our system. Of concern is the fact that to date 271 000 vehicles on our roads countrywide have valid licence discs. One hundred and forty eight thousand are driving around with expired vehicle licence discs while 381 000 motorists have not even bothered to license their vehicle since we migrated from the manual system to the computerised system,” said Mr Chitukutuku.
It is estimated that there are more than 800 000 vehicles in the country.
“We will be conducting a joint operation to account for all the unlicensed vehicles, in fact by April they will not be able to use the country’s highways, as all the 17 tollgates and the nine toll plazas will be computerised and will identify these vehicles at all tolling points,” said Mr Chitukutuku.
He said the tollgates and toll plazas would have computer operated boom gates and cameras.
“One of the cameras has a Number Plate Recognition System (NPRS) that captures the licence plate number and runs it through our database.
“If the vehicle is not registered, the boom gate will not open and the motorist would have to stop and register before proceeding. Another camera will capture the actual vehicle to determine its size so that the correct toll fee is charged. A computerised receipt would be generated before the boom gate is opened,” he said.
Mr Chitukutuku said the first toll plaza to start operating is the one situated about 17 kilometres from Bulawayo along the Bulawayo-Harare Road.
“That one should be working by the end of the month followed by the one at Norton and the other at Figtree. All nine should be operational by the end of April. However, the toll plazas will not charge a higher fee, as has been expected,” he said.
Mr Chitukutuku said the tollgates that are not along the Plumtree to Mutare highway would be upgraded, computerised and booths added to make them operable in all kind of weather.
He encouraged motorists to always renew their licences on time, instead of flooding licensing points or agents on the last day of renewal.
“Three weeks before the expiry of any vehicle licence disc, our system is able to produce discs for the following term. We have 90 licensing sites countrywide. Each site can process up to 200 transactions a day. There is therefore no need to congest licensing points on the very last day,” he said.
Mr Chitukutuku said the long queues that were experienced last week were caused by Internet failure that slowed down the licensing system.
He urged motorists to license their vehicles to enable Zinara to rehabilitate the country’s roads.
“We are aware of the frustrations of the motoring public, as they navigate through potholes, but what we all need to understand is that the country has a maintenance backlog. I need not emphasise that to clear that backlog requires every motorist to be faithful to license his or her vehicles. We as Zinara and our motoring public all have a duty to play,” said Mr Chitukutuku.
Zinara introduced new licence discs with high security features as a measure to plug the production of fake discs.
Counterfeiting was reportedly costing Zinara more than $20 million in potential revenue yearly.
The new system also aims to establish and capture the actual number of vehicles on Zimbabwe’s roads.
Road licence fees are used together with tollgate fees, overload fees and transit fees to maintain the country’s roads and construct new ones.
Licence discs per vehicle per term are $15 for motorcycles and $20 for small vehicles.
Owners of vehicles between three and seven tonnes fork out $45 while for vehicles above seven tonnes but below nine tonnes, the discs are $60 and those more than nine tonnes are $75. Small trailer owners pay $15 and big trailers are charged $40.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo