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Zvifadzo Lubombo Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has received a second batch of 40 motorised graders which was purchased at a cost of US$8 million from China under the Road Authorities Recapitalisation Programme. Zinara chief executive officer Mr Frank Chitukutuku said this at the 10th Rural District Council Engineers’ annual conference which opened this week in Hwange.
“We received another batch of 40 graders earlier this month which have been assembled and are now awaiting commissioning and distribution to Rural District Councils, the District Development Fund as well as the Department of Roads,” he said.
The first batch of 40 motorised graders was commissioned by President Mugabe in July this year.
The commissioning of the graders has brought relief to people living in rural areas where roads had become impassable.
Mr Chitukutuku said a total of 2 937km of the country’s road network had been rehabilitated using the first batch of graders.
He also told delegates at the conference that his organisation had set up a 24-hour call centre which offered full support service and a tracking system to ensure that equipment works in the designated areas.
Road Authorities Recapitalisation Programme had come against a decade-long road maintenance backlog that led to the deterioration of the national road network.
Poor road infrastructure hampered national development.
Meanwhile, Zinara has introduced a new vehicle licence disc with more security features as part of efforts to curb the illegal reproduction of the permits.
Last year, the road utility lost up to US$15 million in potential revenue through rampant printing of counterfeit discs.
The road administrator last year collected US$25 million from vehicle permit fees against potential revenue of US$40 million in a country which has an estimated vehicle population of 800 000 with only 478 000 licensed authentically.
Online Reporter