Zimbabwe’s City council of Bulawayo has announced that it will require at least US$115 million for the rehabilitation and upgrading of the roads neglected for many years in the city.
According to the BCC director for engineering services, Simela Dube, the road situation in the city are so bad and have affected central business district. About 354 km of roads require immediate attention.
“We are saying an investment of almost US$115 million is required for us to take our network back to reasonable conditions,” Dube said.
According to Dube, the council is working on various programmes that are funded by various bodies including the city that will give US$5 million. The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) has disbursed US$200 000 to the local authority towards the road construction initiatives.
“On the local roads we are working on a proposal where we are going to try and team up with communities, supply them with the materials and they do the pothole patching while we provide them with inputs in the form of tar and aggregates,” added Dube.
Zimbabwe has kicked off the Wedza – Sadza road construction project, which will be done at a cost of US$22m. The country also announced last year that construction of the Bulawayo -Tsholotsho road, which had stalled for about a decade, had been started off. These would be good news as the 112-kilometre-long road would open up accessibility in the area.
