Govt to issue 30-year concessions for roads

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO 

Government is planning to give a 30-year concession to the private sector players that adopt and rehabilitate the country’s deplorable roads, the Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube (pictured) has revealed.

The winning bidders, Ncube said, would recoup their investments plus interest through tolling the roads and get toll fees from those roads.

It comes at a time when most roads in Zimbabwe are in a bad state.

“… We want to concession some of these roads. We give someone a 25-year to 30-year concession where they spend their resources, revamping roads, upgrading roads and toll it and get toll fees from that road,” Ncube said.

“One of the roads that we are tying loose ends in terms of the legal issues is the road from Harare to Kanyemba.”

He said the plan might be extended to airports as well.

“Which means where the Government has already spent money (on a road) it could re-concession that road literally by being paid by an investor the value of what we would have spent and so forth.

“We get paid and as government will use those resources and other infrastructure and the developer takes over and toll the road and collect toll fees. We are looking at that possibility. We can do it with roads and with airports as well,” he said.

Ncube said developing sound road infrastructure was one of the critical enablers towards achieving set targets under the National Development Strategy 1, the government’s five-year economic master plan, which spans from 2021 through to year 2025.

Meanwhile, the Bulawayo City Council said the completion of Luveve Road improvement works would be delayed by approximately seven weeks.

The rehabilitation of Luveve Road started in January with the local authority expecting to spend at least US$1.2m on the project.

Council shut down parts of it in January and announced rehabilitation would take about 90 days.

But, in a statement this week, the town clerk, Christopher Dube said the project would be delayed.

The adverse grounds (high water table/water logged soils and expansive clays) can be attributed to the delay. These have had an adverse impact on construction works and have necessitated the extension of time and resulted in increased costs.

“The expansive cays require specialised treatment and the high-water table will need a subsoil drainage system to be installed. To ensure the safety of the motoring public, pedestrians and workforce, there are a few measures which have been put in place,” Dube said.