Opinion / Interviews
World-class roads for Zimbabwe by 2020
14 Apr 2013 at 02:23hrs | Views
It is generally contended that Zimbabwe can be a transportation hub for the region because of its centrality, and over the past couple of years the work that the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development has invested to realise this dream is beginning to take shape.
The Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway is gradually becoming a world-class road, as Infralink - a joint venture company between South African firm Group Five and local statutory body Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) -continues with works on the 820-kilometre stretch of the highway. However, there is also a lot of planning and work behind the scenes for similar works for other highways.
Last week, The Sunday Mail Business Editor DARLINGTON MUSARURWA caught up with the Minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development, Mr Nicholas Goche, for his insights.
DM: Government recently hinted that in addition to the current rehabilitation works by Infralink on the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway, it intended to dualise the Harare to Bulawayo stretch. Does Government still harbour these aspirations?
NG: No, no, no! We are not harbouring aspirations. This project already has money - about US$147 million - set aside for it. There is only one precondition that we need to meet, and that precondition involves the VAT (Value Added Tax) issue between Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) and Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) and once that issue is resolved, the works will begin. What happened is that this project was given national project status, but Group Five was made to pay Value Added Tax, so it is the issue of that VAT that was taken that needs to be resolved. That VAT was taken and the US$206 million tag on the project was the net value of the project.
So, they (Group Five) are saying that money must be paid back first before they release funds for the dualisation.
The first phase was Harare to Norton; the second phase is Norton to Kadoma then Kadoma to Gweru and the third and final phase is Gweru to Bulawayo.
The Plumtree stretch is not going to be dualised because the traffic volumes do not warrant that. It is also important to also note that we will be constructing new border post infrastructure at either end - in Mutare and at Plumtree.
DM: But is that planned for the short, medium or long term?
NG: Well, this is going to be immediate because the funds are there; so, when the funds are there, you only have to deal with technical issues, but otherwise the funds have been provided for.
DM: Minister, you are on record as condemning the previous structures that used to be called tollgates. What informed Government's decision to spearhead the construction of toll plazas?
NG: Well, first of all, when I went to Cabinet to say I needed to introduce a tolling system on our roads in order for us to raise funds for infrastructure development, including pothole patching and so forth, we knew that once we get those funds we should be able to build new toll structures, but we had no money at that particular time. All we wanted were temporary structures - a tolling site. There were not even tollgates, there were just temporary structures at tolling sites, structures where people simply had a roof over their head. Those were the kind of structures we needed. However, I don't know what happened between our department of roads and the contractors in the construction of those kind of things. But that is history; what we have decided to do is that we have even made those ugly things look nicer now. If you visit some of them now, they almost look as these toll plazas that we are constructing. We have also computerised them so that we can maximise revenue collection, and with increased revenue we can also increase our disbursements to local authorities and also for the department itself to do the work that needs to be done.
DM: What about the North-South Corridor, the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway?
NG: The feasibility study for the North-South Corridor is now complete. We know what will be the cost of that road from Harare to Beitbridge, and we have a number of companies that have expressed interest to join us in a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) and we are evaluating those interests.
DM: So, what will be the cost of rehabilitating that road?
NG: The cost is about US$790 million
DM: And when will the project take off?
NG: It depends on how quick we finalise discussions, for example, the evaluation by our technical team, financial team and so forth, especially the evaluation of all those expressions of interest by the companies that would have expressed interest to do the work. Once the evaluation is completed they will make their recommendations and I will take it up with my superiors.
DM: But what happened to the dispute between ZimHighways, the consortium of local companies that claimed to have been awarded the right to rehabilitate that road, and the Government?
NG: That was cancelled by the State Procurement Board.
DM: Minister, are you happy with the quality of the work that we have seen so far on the Plumtree-Bulawayo-Mutare highway?
NG: If you have driven from Plumtree to Bulawayo, you will realise that that is an excellent road. My technical people are very, very pleased with the quality of the work from Plumtree to Bulawayo.
There are some concerns on the stretch between Gweru and Kwekwe and those concerns have been referred to Group Five and they will be looking into that.
As you come onto that stretch from Bulawayo up to Portland Cement, that stretch is not good. They said it bled; it's bleeding. So, they will re-open and strengthen the base so that it doesn't bleed.
DM: You have indicated that traditionally funding for the road works used to come from the fiscus, but with the new model that the country has adopted, do you see Zimbabwe adopting a sustainable way of maintaining its road infrastructure?
NG: The tolling system is what everybody else is doing. If you look at South Africa, they adopted the tolling system a long time ago and look at their highways. They are able to construct new highways and they are able to maintain and rehabilitate the existing ones. They are sustaining that whole operation. So, there is no reason why we cannot be able to sustain these programmes that we have embarked upon because we will be getting money from the users of the road, the motorists, and that money will be channelled to road infrastructure development, construction of new roads, rehabilitation of old ones and expansion where necessary.
DM: Is the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development working with a time horizon in mind to ensure that all our highways are world class?
NG: Well, we don't have a date per se, but I can assure you that by 2020 a lot of work will have been done on a number of highways. For example, on the Harare to Chirundu road, we will start work soon. We have money that has been given to us by Tripartite Organisation: that is Comesa (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) and the EAC (East African Community).
It is US$40 million just to do the stretch from Makuti to Chirundu.
But we also have finished our feasibility study from Harare to Makuti and the study shows that we can dualise that road from Harare to Lion's Den and do rehabilitation and expansion from Lion's Den to about five kilometres before Karoi and then dualise between Karoi and three or five kilometres from Karoi, the reason being as you enter an urban place there is an increase in volume of transport. We can be able to do that from tolling and nothing else.
The Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway is gradually becoming a world-class road, as Infralink - a joint venture company between South African firm Group Five and local statutory body Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) -continues with works on the 820-kilometre stretch of the highway. However, there is also a lot of planning and work behind the scenes for similar works for other highways.
Last week, The Sunday Mail Business Editor DARLINGTON MUSARURWA caught up with the Minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development, Mr Nicholas Goche, for his insights.
DM: Government recently hinted that in addition to the current rehabilitation works by Infralink on the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway, it intended to dualise the Harare to Bulawayo stretch. Does Government still harbour these aspirations?
NG: No, no, no! We are not harbouring aspirations. This project already has money - about US$147 million - set aside for it. There is only one precondition that we need to meet, and that precondition involves the VAT (Value Added Tax) issue between Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) and Zinara (Zimbabwe National Road Administration) and once that issue is resolved, the works will begin. What happened is that this project was given national project status, but Group Five was made to pay Value Added Tax, so it is the issue of that VAT that was taken that needs to be resolved. That VAT was taken and the US$206 million tag on the project was the net value of the project.
So, they (Group Five) are saying that money must be paid back first before they release funds for the dualisation.
The first phase was Harare to Norton; the second phase is Norton to Kadoma then Kadoma to Gweru and the third and final phase is Gweru to Bulawayo.
The Plumtree stretch is not going to be dualised because the traffic volumes do not warrant that. It is also important to also note that we will be constructing new border post infrastructure at either end - in Mutare and at Plumtree.
DM: But is that planned for the short, medium or long term?
NG: Well, this is going to be immediate because the funds are there; so, when the funds are there, you only have to deal with technical issues, but otherwise the funds have been provided for.
DM: Minister, you are on record as condemning the previous structures that used to be called tollgates. What informed Government's decision to spearhead the construction of toll plazas?
NG: Well, first of all, when I went to Cabinet to say I needed to introduce a tolling system on our roads in order for us to raise funds for infrastructure development, including pothole patching and so forth, we knew that once we get those funds we should be able to build new toll structures, but we had no money at that particular time. All we wanted were temporary structures - a tolling site. There were not even tollgates, there were just temporary structures at tolling sites, structures where people simply had a roof over their head. Those were the kind of structures we needed. However, I don't know what happened between our department of roads and the contractors in the construction of those kind of things. But that is history; what we have decided to do is that we have even made those ugly things look nicer now. If you visit some of them now, they almost look as these toll plazas that we are constructing. We have also computerised them so that we can maximise revenue collection, and with increased revenue we can also increase our disbursements to local authorities and also for the department itself to do the work that needs to be done.
DM: What about the North-South Corridor, the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway?
NG: The feasibility study for the North-South Corridor is now complete. We know what will be the cost of that road from Harare to Beitbridge, and we have a number of companies that have expressed interest to join us in a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) and we are evaluating those interests.
DM: So, what will be the cost of rehabilitating that road?
DM: And when will the project take off?
NG: It depends on how quick we finalise discussions, for example, the evaluation by our technical team, financial team and so forth, especially the evaluation of all those expressions of interest by the companies that would have expressed interest to do the work. Once the evaluation is completed they will make their recommendations and I will take it up with my superiors.
DM: But what happened to the dispute between ZimHighways, the consortium of local companies that claimed to have been awarded the right to rehabilitate that road, and the Government?
NG: That was cancelled by the State Procurement Board.
DM: Minister, are you happy with the quality of the work that we have seen so far on the Plumtree-Bulawayo-Mutare highway?
NG: If you have driven from Plumtree to Bulawayo, you will realise that that is an excellent road. My technical people are very, very pleased with the quality of the work from Plumtree to Bulawayo.
There are some concerns on the stretch between Gweru and Kwekwe and those concerns have been referred to Group Five and they will be looking into that.
As you come onto that stretch from Bulawayo up to Portland Cement, that stretch is not good. They said it bled; it's bleeding. So, they will re-open and strengthen the base so that it doesn't bleed.
DM: You have indicated that traditionally funding for the road works used to come from the fiscus, but with the new model that the country has adopted, do you see Zimbabwe adopting a sustainable way of maintaining its road infrastructure?
NG: The tolling system is what everybody else is doing. If you look at South Africa, they adopted the tolling system a long time ago and look at their highways. They are able to construct new highways and they are able to maintain and rehabilitate the existing ones. They are sustaining that whole operation. So, there is no reason why we cannot be able to sustain these programmes that we have embarked upon because we will be getting money from the users of the road, the motorists, and that money will be channelled to road infrastructure development, construction of new roads, rehabilitation of old ones and expansion where necessary.
DM: Is the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development working with a time horizon in mind to ensure that all our highways are world class?
NG: Well, we don't have a date per se, but I can assure you that by 2020 a lot of work will have been done on a number of highways. For example, on the Harare to Chirundu road, we will start work soon. We have money that has been given to us by Tripartite Organisation: that is Comesa (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) and the EAC (East African Community).
It is US$40 million just to do the stretch from Makuti to Chirundu.
But we also have finished our feasibility study from Harare to Makuti and the study shows that we can dualise that road from Harare to Lion's Den and do rehabilitation and expansion from Lion's Den to about five kilometres before Karoi and then dualise between Karoi and three or five kilometres from Karoi, the reason being as you enter an urban place there is an increase in volume of transport. We can be able to do that from tolling and nothing else.
Source - SM
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