Zimpapers Logo

Blessings Chidakwa Mash West Correspondent
CHEGUTU Town Council has started rehabilitating its road network after the local authority got an allocation of $80 000 from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara). In an interview, the town’s chairperson Mr Leo Gwanzura said the road rehabilitation exercise was going on well.

“We received $80 000 from Zinara and we have started resurfacing and patching potholes,” he said. Mr Gwanzura said the allocation from Zinara was timely as the town was battling to fund road rehabilitation programmes on its own. He said the city’s road network was extensively damaged in last year’s heavy rains, which saw Government declaring a state of disaster on roads.

Zinara early this year disbursed over $45 million to local authorities for the rehabilitation of roads, following excessive damage caused by heavy rains experienced in the 2016-2017 rainy season. The money was disbursed under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, created in response to the damage caused by floods. Zinara said in a statement they had managed to raise $58,6 million from capital markets through an infrastructure bond.

“Zinara entered into the Zimbabwean financial markets for the purpose of raising short-term debt of $100 million by leveraging on 2017 disbursements,” it said. The Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme is being carried out in two phases, Zinara said.

“Phase one covers works of a routine nature and focuses on preserving the current infrastructure to ensure roads are in a safe condition for travellers,” it said.

“Part of the scope of works includes rehabilitation of the drainage system, pothole patching, repairing and clearing of culverts and bridges.” The second phase focuses on periodic maintenance works and includes rehabilitation of failed sections of the road network through re-gravelling, resealing and reconstruction of bridges, said Zinara. The first phase has a budget of $40,9 million, while $60,2 million is earmarked for the second phase.