The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) is set to launch the Tollgate Development Plan, a programme to upgrade and redevelop all tollgates along the country’s major highways.
The Plan, which will commence within the first three months of this year, is meant to tackle traffic congestion and improve revenue collection while eradicating leakages.
The Tollgate Development Plan will entail equipping some tollgates with e-tolling technology – a system of collecting toll fees using equipment that recognizes vehicles through electronic tags. ZINARA board chairperson George Manyaya said:
We need to look into upgrading and updating ICT infrastructure and software solutions so as to increase operational efficiency to ensure speedy and flawless service to all customers.
We must harness the digital economy and use emerging technologies to counter leakages that are always reported at some of our tollgates.
We are going to ensure that all our systems are computerised in order to minimise human interface.
The project of e-tolling is something that we are seriously looking at to ensure that our operations are seamless and efficient.
From the end of the first quarter of this year, the project of enhancing the computerisation capacity of tollgates would have started.
Manyaya said the ZINARA will soon jointly announce the Tollgate Development Plan with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, which own the tollgates.