Major trunk roads set for rehab

Government is targeting to construct or rehabilitate three major trunk roads in each of the country's 10 provinces using public-private partnerships (PPPs) and its own resources.

In an interview during a tour of some of the roads being constructed in Manicaland recently, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza said a lot of money would be released towards road rehabilitation.

"The major trunk roads are going to be taken care of. Some are going through PPPs, while we will do some. We also have Beitbridge-Harare. Those are some of the major roads. Nyamapanda is one of them. We have Kanyemba-Bindura. We are targeting three major roads in each province," he said.

"The budgets are still being worked out. There is going to be a lot of money to be released for maintenance and rehabilitation.  The new Zinara board will make sure the collection and disbursement and auditing is done properly, especially at the collection stage where we tend to have leakages of funds coming in. We want to nip it in the bud."

He said there were many roads that needed to be rehabilitated. Government was looking at bringing in PPPs for the projects and would also continue funding from its Zinara coffers.

More to follow......