Preliminary work to assemble 300 Zimbabwe United Passenger
Company (Zupco) buses in partnership with Belarus has begun, with Government
setting up a taskforce to superintend over the implementation of the project,
expected to take off by mid-year.
The taskforce — made up of the ministries of Local
Government and Public Works; Finance and Economic Development; Zupco and AVM
Africa — has already come up with a roadmap for the project.
Design specifications of the buses have since been sent to
the Eastern European country to determine the cost of the knocked-down kits. Also,
a team of local engineers is set to begin training to ensure that they have the
requisite skills to assemble the coaches.
Secretary for Local Government and Public Works Mr Zvinechimwe
Churu said the project will begin in earnest once the team gets feedback from
Belarus.
“The Government of Zimbabwe, through the Ministry of Local
Government and Public Works, has engaged the key entities in Belarus and to
that effect, specifications of the required buses have been submitted,” he
said.
“The ministry now awaits the Belarus entities to come up
with costing schedules to enable the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
to kick-start works.
“In line with the workplan agreed between the Ministry of
Local Government and Public Works and the Belarus entities, the assembling will
commence by the third quarter of the year.
“Prior to that, training sessions will be conducted for
Zimbabwean engineers to enable them to properly assemble the 300 buses that
will be assembled locally.”
AVM Africa (Pvt) Ltd managing director Mr Jacob Kupa, who
is also part of the taskforce, said there was a clear roadmap to consummate the
project.
“As a taskforce, we have a roadmap for assembling the buses
and we are working on that. At the moment that is all I can tell you,” he said.
The semi-finished buses are part the 500 coaches secured
through a deal struck between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Belarusian
counterpart, President Alexander Lukashenko, in January last year.
The decision to assemble the buses locally was informed by
the need for fit-for-purpose vehicles capable of plying the local terrain,
especially in rural areas where most of the roads are not tarred.
Commuters on the affected routes have had to contend with
high transport fares charged by private operators.
However, in addition to creating employment, locally
assembling the 300 buses is also expected to have a multiplier effect on the
economy since about 40 percent of the materials used in manufacturing the
coaches would also be sourced from the local market.
Zupco presently operates more than 272 buses, some of which
are sourced from private sector players using its franchise. A new fleet for
the parastatal is progressively being procured from China, South Africa and
Belarus.
Government’s targeted intervention through providing
subsidised transport is meant to insulate commuters from extortionate fares
charged by private transport operators.
Negotiations are also underway with Chinese manufacturers
to set up bus assembling plants locally after Government recently procured
buses from the Asian country. Sunday Mail
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