$5 billion needed for road rehabilitation

ZIMBABWE needs about $5 billion over the next five to 10 years for its national road development and rehabilitation programme, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo has said.

Speaking at the inaugural Zim-asset Bulawayo stakeholder conference on Saturday, Minister Gumbo said due to inadequate funding, the national road network has been in poor condition.

"The national road development and rehabilitation programme requires funding of about $5 billion over the next five to 10 years, that's, about $500 million annually.

"However, the allocation received by my ministry from both the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and Treasury in 2015 was just over $6 million," he said.

"This has been the trend over the years resulting in a huge backlog in road maintenance activities, hence the poor condition of our national road network."

As part of efforts to address the funding shortages, the government will soon embark on an extensive Build Operate Transfer (BOT) road programme that will see most of the primary roads being put to tender.

Minister Gumbo said there is also going to be an improved fund management by Zinara to provide more allocation to the road programme.

"We're therefore looking at increased road activities in the next few years," he said.

Despite lack of resources to fully implement the road rehabilitation project across the country, Gumbo said Bulawayo's road network is fairly well developed.

"In fact, Bulawayo's road network is one of the best-maintained urban road networks in Zimbabwe and has been for many years.

"This is largely explained by the prudent application of the resources that Zinara has provided for the road network in the city," he said.

In 2015, Zinara released $899,200 for road rehabilitation to the Bulawayo City Council.The roads authority has this year again allocated the same figure with a total of $570,700 having been released so far.

Minister Gumbo applauded the Bulawayo City Council for its innovation in introducing the community-based road maintenance programme that involves pothole patching, grass cutting and drainage clearance.

The programme is ward based and involves making use of locals to fix their own roads with council officials coming in as supervisors.Meanwhile, Minister Gumbo also said the revival of the National Railways of Zimbabwe was critical as the parastatal plays a pivotal role in economic development.

Against this background, he said, the government is negotiating with regional financiers for funding to recapitalise NRZ. The National Railways is engaged with the Development Bank of Southern Africa for a $650 million loan facility.