Zinara sets aside ZWL$14bn for tollgates upgrade
TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara) has set aside ZWL$14bn to go towards the upgrade of six tollgates across the country, it has been learnt.
“…For 2023, we have budgeted ZWL$14bn and the tollgates that we are targeting are Skyline, Dema, Esigodini, Mpfurudzi, Lion’s Den and Flamingo. For Skyline, Dema and Lion’s Den this is going to include the relocation of the tollgates because they are now in built up areas,” Zinara spokesperson Tendai Mugabe told Business Times.
Skyline is situated about 18 kilometres along the Harare-Masvingo road, Dema (along Chitungwiza-Wedza highway), Esigodini (Bulawayo-Beitbridge road) , Mupfurudzi (Bindura-Mt Darwin road), Lion’s Den (near Chinhoyi) and Flamingo (in Gweru).
Mugabe said Zinara provides the funding and the design and construction of the tollgates is done by the Department of Roads which is in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
He said the project to upgrade tollgates actually started in 2022 with Norton and Shamva toll-gates.
The proposed upgrade comes at a time when there are serious revenue leakages at most tollgates across the country due to a lax system resulting in some errant motorists passing through without paying toll fees.
According to Zinara toll fees collection processes gobble about 18-30% of the total revenue, a somewhat high figure, hence efforts to introduce the e-tolling facility.
In historical terms, toll fees collections totalled ZWL$1.2bn in 2020, which is 556% higher than the ZWL$183m realised in 2019, meaning the collection process chewed a huge chunk of inflows.
