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Melissa Makoto Herald Reporter
Harare City Council is set to establish a new asphalt plant after Government, through the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Taskforce, approved a $500 000 budget for the project.

It is believed that the 25-year-old plant, which has since outlived its lifespan, has been gobbling thousands of dollars in repairs. The new development is part of broad, concerted efforts to spruce up the city’s roads.

In an interview with The Herald yesterday, the tackforce’s technical committee member, Engineer Moses Juma, said they wanted to assess the progress that has so far been achieved by the local authority.

“We want to assess the physical progress under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme from their (HCC) allocations,” he said. “Therefore, we want to see what they have achieved to date.”

The local authority, he said, was working on a number of road works in the capital. Eng Juma said Government had provided $12,9 million for some of the roadworks, while City of Harare will contribute $12,3 million from its own resources.

HCC’s director of works Eng Zvenyika Chawatama said the road maintenance work underway was designed to cover the city’s major arterial roads.

“With road maintenance plans, we would want to cover all roads that have direct impact on our commuters. We are going to do the same thing for the low (density) and industrial areas. We would want to make sure that for those industries that are functional, people should be able to access them,” he said.

The road Emergency Road Rehabilitation Taskforce committee is made up of the City of Harare, District Development Fund (DDF), the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, the Office of President Cabinet (OPC), Zinara (Zimbabwe National Roads Administration) and the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.