Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has said it needs about $5 billion to reseal the country’s road network. Speaking on the sidelines of the African Roads Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA) meeting which started here yesterday, Zinara board chairperson Albert Mugabe said they had realised that the ongoing pothole patching exercise was not sustainable as roads would quickly wear out hence the need for a holistic approach in the maintenance of roads.

“Pothole patching is ongoing but as Zinara we’ve realised that we need to put greater attention to a holistic package because we’ve been chasing pothole patching yet the actual state of the roads demand a complete reseal,” said Mugabe.

He said Zinara had looked at sustainable ways of maintaining roads and came up with a resealing package, which requires $5 billion.

“As Zinara we’re now exploring avenues of how best we can work on our roads. We need about $5 billion for the project.

“The money sounds massive but if we look at what we’re losing economically because of the state of the roads, you would agree that it’s far greater than the $5 billion,” said the board chair.

He said it was important for people to understand that the state of the road network is key to the economy.

“The road network is a major determinant of the economy and $5 billion over a period of time is nothing because if we don’t move in now with such intervention, the money required would be more in a few years to come,” he said.

Mugabe said Zimbabwe, just like many other countries affiliated to the 34-member continental body ARMFA, had not increased the length of its road network in the last decade.

The ARMFA meeting which ends tomorrow, seeks to help road authorities from member countries to find ways of funding their own road projects and learn from those that have excelled. Mugabe challenged his counterparts to start thinking of other ways of raising infrastructure development funds.

“We can’t continue to fund road maintenance from treasury. Donor funding dried up overnight because of sanctions and now we’ve to look for alternative ways of funding. We’ve stretches of road networks and on these we can raise money through billboard advertising the same way we’re doing with tollgates,” he said. “Other countries are making money from billboards but here in Zimbabwe we’ve 70 metres on either side of the road which is reserved and if this is used for adverts we can generate a lot of money,” he said.

You Might Also Like

Comments