$512m earmarked for road rehab

Joseph Madzimure Senior Reporter

The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has earmarked $512 million for disbursement to four authorities for road maintenance countrywide this year.

The four beneficiaries are the Department of Roads under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, the District Development Fund (DDF) under the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), urban councils and rural district councils.

In an interview, Zinara acting chief executive Engineer Moses Chigonyati said urban councils would get a larger chunk of the money.

Sixty rural district councils will get $117 760 000, urban councils $158 719 999, the Department of Roads $143 360 000 and DDF $92 159 999.

“The funds are supposed to cover routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and other emergency maintenance works.

“Out of the total amount budgeted, we will disburse a quarter of the total budget in advance for routine maintenance, which involves grass cutting, de-silting of drains, pothole patching, among others.

“Road authorities have to acquit those funds to get the next disbursement. Emergency works are done when for instance a tree falls and blocks the road or a bridge or road is washed away and is supposed to be repaired urgently.”

Eng Chigonyati said periodic maintenance involved resurfacing of roads, resealing, re-gravelling and this was normally done after about five years.

The disbursement of funds is made only after the road authorities submit a claim certificate, which is called an interim payment certificate (IPC).

“The road authorities get the claim forms from the contractor and after that they have to assess the work done and if they are satisfied, they then forward the claim to Zinara with a cover letter and that is when we make the payment,” said Eng Chigonyati. 

He said there was need to look for other sources of augmenting the funds since they were not enough.

“Bitumen, spare parts for plant and equipment are imported, so this budget will not be enough on its own,” said Eng Chigonyati.

“It requires us to look at other sources for maintenance works.’’

Eng Chigonyati reiterated Zinara’s commitment to fulfilling its mandate to collect road user fees and disburse them to road authorities, and to monitor and evaluate the roadworks.

“We also do technical audits on the roadworks, that is to verify if the works were carried out in accordance with the specifications as outlined in the documents prepared by the road authorities,” he said.

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