The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) has urged local authorities to think outside the box rather than expect the department to disburse enough funds to satisfy their needs.
Speaking during an interview with The Sunday Mail Online Editor Garikai Mazara, ZINARA board chair Michael Madanha advised local authorities to consider PPPs and BOTs. He said:
Road authorities need to think outside the box and look for other sources of funding through PPPs (private-public partnerships) and BOTs (build-operate-transfer).
Funds from Zinara will never be sufficient to fund the more than 98 000km of roads in the country.
We will continue to increase funding to local authorities, but these funds will never satisfy all their needs. We all need to be innovative.
Zinara got into a relationship with Group Five to fund the Plumtree-Mutare highway and local authorities can copy the same example and engage in a public-private partnership.
Madanha could, however, not comment on whether new toll gates will be introduced on the country’s road network this year, or in the foreseeable future.
He said tollgate construction is the mandate of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.