Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa
Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) has disbursed funds to local authorities across the length and breadth of the country, as the emergency road rehabilitation programme spearheaded by President ED Mnangagwa’s government gets into full swing.
The first disbursement has seen ZINARA cough out more than two billion Zimbabwe Dollars to urban and rural councils, Department of Roads under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development and the District Development Fund (DDF).
DDF has received the lion’s share of the disbursed funds in light of the huge responsibility for most of rural roads and road infrastructure in need of repair.
The provision of road transport infrastructure in Zimbabwe over the past two decades has faced several challenges that include inadequate funding, natural disasters and poor maintenance and rehabilitation.
Most of the roads have outlived their useful lifespan and the situation was further worsened by the heavy rains Zimbabwe received during the just ended rain season.
In February of 2021, President Mnangagwa declared that all roads a state of disaster which was followed by the launch of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2(ERRP2).
Following this declaration, ZINARA as road fund manager was tasked together with Treasury to raise $400 million to rehabilitate the country’s road network.
According to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Hon Felex Mhona, “As of 4 June 2021, the program had seen 23.6km rehabilitated and 12 km resealed. 42 km have been re-graveled while 2 947km been graded. 63 drainage structures have been constructed or repaired across all Road Authorities and 27 washaways reclaimed. A total length of 1 233km of drains has been attended and 2 344km of verge clearing has been achieved. Potholes have been patched on a cumulative 739.6km. The work achieved so far under ERRP2 is pleasing and Government is determined to deliver a world-class road network by 2030.”
Minister Mhona exhorted ZINARA to continue mobilising funds for capital projects saying, “One flagship project being implemented under the Second Republic is the refurbishment of of the Harare-Beitbridge highway. We are refurbishing the road using local resources and so far, more than 200km have been opened to traffic and other stretches are going to be opened soon. I therefore encourage ZINARA to continue mobilising funds for capital projects of this nature in line with VIsion2030. it is no longer business as usual and as the Government we commend ZINARA efforts in their rebranding efforts and starting on an innovative journey as they come up with smart ways of collecting road user fees for sustainable development”
Since January 2021, ZINARA has distributed over 800million to DDF, 442 million to urban councils, rural councils almost 300 million and Department of Roads almost 500 million. The total distributed funds is over $2 billion.
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