Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has allocated additional US $2.6m funds to Gweru City Council for its roads rehabilitation programme. The local authority has been rehabilitating major roads linking the Central Business District and the suburbs.
Gweru Mayor, Councillor Charles Chikozho, confirmed that they are happy with what they have done so far in terms of road rehabilitation that is why they are getting the amount. “So our job now is to identify a contractor who will do the work then Zinara will deposit the money into the contractors account for the project, the money will not be coming to the council coffers,” said Councillor Chikozho
“Some roads in Mkoba and Senga which were in a very bad state have been rehabilitated and people have been commending what we are doing,” he added.
Improving damaged roads in the city
Also read:Harare City receives US$ 26m for roads rehabilitation
Funding of other roads network
Meanwhile the city’s director of engineering services, Engineer Robson Manatsa says the city needs at least US $40m to revamp its road network, which seriously needs attention as most of the roads have outlived their lifespan.
The Midlands capital has a road network of over 1 200km and the local authority has only managed to rehabilitate 27km of the city’s road network since September last year, records show.
So far the city has accessed US $5.6m from Zinara; and in the next phase of the rehabilitation exercise, which is likely to start in March, the council will resurface major roads used by public transport operators.
“There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that our roads are in a good state. We need at least US $40m to ensure that we rehabilitate the city’s road network and so far we have rehabilitated 27 km under the Emergency Rehabilitation Programme,” he said.
Roads projects tenders
“We have already flighted tenders for the next phase of the rehabilitation exercise and after all the processes are complete we hope to resume our work in March.
“We are looking at rehabilitating a further 36 km of the road network where we are targeting major routes, which are mostly used by public transport operators,” he affirmed.
