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Treasury directs Zinara to disburse 70% of funds for rehabilitation
21 Jun 2016 at 15:53hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) says it is now disbursing the greater chunk of its funds towards periodic road maintenance in view of limited funds and a huge rehabilitation backlog.
Periodic maintenance entails re-sealing, re-gravelling and general broader rehabilitation of the country's road network.
ZINARA acting chief executive officer Engineer Moses Juma said the greater chunk of the institution's funds was going towards long-term rehabilitation as opposed to community works.
"The new policy direction guided by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is guiding ZINARA to disburse 30 percent towards routine maintenance works (community works) and 70 percent for periodic maintenance," he said.
The acting CEO was speaking during the launch of the ‘Road Infrastructure Development Conference', which will be held in Bulawayo alongside the Mine Entra 2016 exhibition.
The move to focus on broader rehabilitation comes as the parastatal is generating funds way below the required amounts to fully rehabilitate the country's road networks.
The national road development and rehabilitation programme under ZimAsset requires funding of about $5 billion over a five-year period, which translates to about $500 million annually.
Last year, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development received $6 million from ZINARA and Treasury, a trend that has been common over the past few years, resulting in a huge backlog in road maintenance activities.
Board chairperson Mr Albert Mugabe said annual collections were low against the total road rehabilitation requirements.
"ZINARA has a responsibility to ensure we get value for the money that people pay….our road network has an estimated requirement of over $5 billion, and ZINARA this year is hoping to collect $200 million."
He said it was therefore necessary to leverage on the natural resources readily available in the country to improve the road network.
"We don't have the money, but we do have resources. When you assess the constituent elements of a road you find that what you need is filler material which makes the sub-structure…and when you look at all the requirements it is only the bitumen which we don't have locally.
"A safe, trafficable and efficient road network is very possible, it just requires that we have a different approach. Cumulatively what we can put together can equal the $5 billion that we are seeking. We have been working at this for quite some time and next month when we meet at Mine Entra we want to be presenting this," he said.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s ‘Infrastructure and Growth in Zimbabwe report' of the country's total road network of nearly 90 000 kilometres, the proportion in fair to good condition declined from 73 percent in 1995 to only 60 percent.
Periodic maintenance entails re-sealing, re-gravelling and general broader rehabilitation of the country's road network.
ZINARA acting chief executive officer Engineer Moses Juma said the greater chunk of the institution's funds was going towards long-term rehabilitation as opposed to community works.
"The new policy direction guided by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is guiding ZINARA to disburse 30 percent towards routine maintenance works (community works) and 70 percent for periodic maintenance," he said.
The acting CEO was speaking during the launch of the ‘Road Infrastructure Development Conference', which will be held in Bulawayo alongside the Mine Entra 2016 exhibition.
The move to focus on broader rehabilitation comes as the parastatal is generating funds way below the required amounts to fully rehabilitate the country's road networks.
The national road development and rehabilitation programme under ZimAsset requires funding of about $5 billion over a five-year period, which translates to about $500 million annually.
Board chairperson Mr Albert Mugabe said annual collections were low against the total road rehabilitation requirements.
"ZINARA has a responsibility to ensure we get value for the money that people pay….our road network has an estimated requirement of over $5 billion, and ZINARA this year is hoping to collect $200 million."
He said it was therefore necessary to leverage on the natural resources readily available in the country to improve the road network.
"We don't have the money, but we do have resources. When you assess the constituent elements of a road you find that what you need is filler material which makes the sub-structure…and when you look at all the requirements it is only the bitumen which we don't have locally.
"A safe, trafficable and efficient road network is very possible, it just requires that we have a different approach. Cumulatively what we can put together can equal the $5 billion that we are seeking. We have been working at this for quite some time and next month when we meet at Mine Entra we want to be presenting this," he said.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s ‘Infrastructure and Growth in Zimbabwe report' of the country's total road network of nearly 90 000 kilometres, the proportion in fair to good condition declined from 73 percent in 1995 to only 60 percent.
Source - BH24
