THE Transport ministry says it plans to engage contractors to work on potholes which have rendered most public roads impassable.
In a statement, Transport minister Felix Mhona said: “As a ministry, we remain committed to redressing these defects to ensure your safety on our roads and increase the number of kilometres of road network that is in good condition.
“Please note that the ministry is in the process of procuring contractors to attend to these works.”
Mhona last week told legislators that the delays in road rehabilitation was caused by heavy rains experienced in the country.”With the advent of heavy rains, there was a slowdown to the rehabilitation of roads, and I want to assure you that we have prioritised roads per each province so that we embark and resume the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).”
“We have started with a number of roads so that we move with speed to reconstruct them. You will be seeing us also doing pothole patching, and in some cases reconstructing roads,” Mhona said.
In 2021, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a state of national disaster on the country’s roads. ERRP was then launched, followed by Statutory Instrument (SI) 47 of 2021, which empowered the Transport ministry to authorise the Zimbabwe National Road Administration to source funding for road rehabilitation.
Under ERRP, government targeted to rehabilitate 10 000 kilometres of roads countrywide, but the majority of the targeted roads remain in poor state.
Source: bulawayo24
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