Plans are also afoot to upgrade existing tollgates on major
highways to ensure they can cope rapidly and easily with the growing volumes of
traffic and do not become a choke point.
Tollgates set to be relocated are Skyline, Dema, Lion’s
Den, Umguza and Shamva.
By next month, the Shamva tollgate is set to be moved to
the 40km peg along the Harare-Nyamapanda Highway while those that will be
rehabilitated to standard levels are the Norton, Esigodini, Mushagashi,
Mupfurudzi and Colleen Bawn tollgates.
Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix
Mhona, his Deputy Mike Madiro and officials from Zinara, the Central Vehicle
Registry (CVR), Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ), Vehicle Inspectorate
Department (VID) and the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED)
yesterday toured the Shamva tollgate.
The minister and the officials also conducted an awareness
and clean-up campaign during the tour.
Minister Mhona confirmed that the tollgates would be moved
further and Zinara was in the process of following the normal procedure for
these developments.
“The main objective is to move these tollgates further out.
When they were constructed, there were no communities that were nearby. But now
more people have now constructed houses near them and hence there is need to
move them out further,” he said.
He said many people were complaining about the location of
the tollgates since they had to drive through them daily.
Zinara chief executive officer Mr Nkosinathi Ncube said
Zinara would fund the reconstruction, rehabilitation and relocation of the
tollgates.
“Shamva will be one of the tollgates that the Ministry of
Transport will relocate and Zinara will come up with the funding. But as
Zinara, we are the users of the tollgate so the key issue is that the lanes are
widened so that motorist are able to pass through comfortably.
“We also want to use technology. We just don’t want to be
expanding. There are a couple of initiatives that we are coming up with such as
e-tolling which is already under process,” he said.
Meanwhile, motorists who evade paying toll fees by using
by-passes and individuals who allow their private roads or premises to be used
as by-passes are now liable to pay a fine of $20 000 following the
criminalisation of such acts by the Government. This fine, which is set at
level 5, goes into Zinara’s road fund.
The same fine is applicable to those who block the road at
tolling points or who commit actions that could block it or obstruct it.
Smaller fines in the gazetted Statutory Instrument, vending and loitering
around tollgates are now also prohibited and punishable by a fine of $2 000.
In the event of a breakdown or otherwise, any vehicle that
remains at the tolling point booth or blocks use of any tolling booth for a
period exceeding 30 minutes shall be subject to a penalty of the applicable
toll fee for such a vehicle for every 30 minutes it remains blocking the
tolling point or part thereof.
At law, Zinara, or the Department of Roads in the Ministry
of Transport and Infrastructural Development acting on behalf of Zinara, are
now empowered to close by-passes within a 1km radius of the tollgate. Herald
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