Suburban
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
A NUMBER of roads in Mt Pleasant constituency, which are in a dilapidated state and which residents have been constantly complaining about, are expected to be repaired early next year Phase 2 of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has assured Mt Pleasant Member of Parliament Mr Samuel Banda that some of the constituency’s roads will benefit from ERRP and undergo the long overdue rehabilitation.
“Recently I was talking with the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Mr Felix Mhona and he assured me that under the ERRP2 in Mt Pleasant, they will rehabilitate a number of roads, starting with Alpes Road.
“All this he said without me having asked him, it came out of his own volition based on requests we had posed in prior years. The date of commencement was not given but he said essentially by beginning of 2022 they will work on the roads,” said Mr Banda in an update to residents.
“The budget contains six roads in Mt Pleasant, three in Ward 17 and three in Ward 7, so we will keep pushing for them to be rehabilitated. The fact remains that our roads are definitely death traps, no doubt about that and it’s very bad,” said Mr Banda.
Several residents have pleaded for the rehabilitation of Twickenham Drive, and the MP said the road will be put on the next priority list after the first batch of roads is completed.
However, Mr Banda said in the meantime the City of Harare will facilitate patching of potholes on Twickenham Drive while it awaits a complete facelift.
“Twickenham Drive is on the next group of priorities to be taken to central Government after the first group is completed.
“As I mentioned before, this one will be worked on when Government provides the funds but it is among the three roads. However, it is the release of funding from Ministry of Finance which may delay the whole process otherwise the Ministry of Transport has its priorities set,” Mr Banda told residents.
The second phase of the ERRP is in full gear across roads in urban and rural district councils as well as on national roads countrywide. The Government has budgeted $33.6bn for the second phase and the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has already disbursed $2.3bn as the Government intensifies efforts to rehabilitate the country’s road network.
According to Zinara spokesperson, Mr Tendai Mugabe a good road network is vital if the country is to realise Vision 2030, which envisages Zimbabwe to be an upper middle income economy.
“So far, we have disbursed $2.3bn for road works that include ERRP and periodic and routine road maintenance since the beginning of the year. Under ERRP, we have disbursed advance payments to all road authorities and road works have already started in earnest in all provinces,” he said.
ERRP is a special project being championed by Government following a public outcry on the state of roads that were heavily damaged by heavy rains received in most parts of the country during last year’s rainfall season.
President Mnangagwa heeded the public outcry and declared all roads a state of disaster paving way for the launch of the ERRP.
Mr Mugabe said some road authorities (councils) were delaying asking for their allocated funds thereby slowing down the pace of road works in some parts of the country.
“We are pleading with them to expedite their claims so that our road infrastructure is attended to without delay.
“As Zinara, we are ready to disburse the funds once we receive the necessary paperwork,” he said.
Under ERRP2, Government is targeting to rehabilitate 10 000km of roads countrywide.
