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The announcement on Wednesday that work on the upgrading of the Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway that will cost $800 million will start soon, is sweet music to the ears of the motoring public.
According to the secretary for Transport and Infrastructural Development, Munesu Munodawafa, a feasibility study for the Beitbridge-Bulawayo stretch is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Munodawafa said the massive rehabilitation of one of the country’s busiest roads was a priority aimed at fulfilling the government’s vision to establish world class road infrastructure. He said this was spelt out in the government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, (Zim-Asset).

The Beitbridge-Bulawayo stretch is estimated to cost $380 million while the cost for the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls stretch has been pegged at $440 million. Work on the feasibility study for the Beitbridge-Bulawayo stretch has already started.

Munodawafa said government was also looking forward to rehabilitating the Beitbridge-Harare highway whose estimated cost is $928 million and dualisation of the same highway is estimated to cost $1,3 billion.

The secretary said his ministry’s vision was to turn the country into a regional hub of world class infrastructure and service. “Our vision is derived from the shape of Southern Africa. Zimbabwe is strategically positioned that most rail, road and air transport systems in Southern Africa pass through the country,” he said.

Work on the rehabilitation of the Plumtree-Mutare highway is almost complete and Munodawafa said government decided to start with this highway because it is critical for intra national connectivity given the fact that it connects all the country’s cities except Masvingo.

Rehabilitating the highway will cost $206 million and the stretch from Plumtree to Kwekwe is almost complete.
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) which is spearheading the rehabilitation of national roads has often come under fire from the motoring public that accuses it of collecting money from the motorists through various levies but doing very little to improve the country’s road network.

Given the projects being implemented and those it plans to work on, Zinara is vindicated. The doubling of toll fess last July is justified given the amount of money required to fund the rehabilitation of the country’s highways.

The amount of money collected from toll fees is in fact a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of rehabilitating the country’s highways. According to Munodawafa the country requires close to $11 billion to rehabilitate the country’s road network yet Zinara collects less than $100 million annually from toll fees.

The rehabilitation of our national highways should lead to reduced carnage on our roads as well as improved movement of goods and services.
This, however, is only possible if the motoring public observe traffic rules and regulations. It is saddening to note that we continue to witness an increase in road traffic accidents even along the rehabilitated stretches of our highways, a disturbing development indeed.

We want at this juncture to implore motorists to exercise extreme caution so that as a nation we enjoy the benefits of the improved road network. The government on its part should continue to prioritise the rehabilitating our roads as many of them have outlived their life span.