BY SILENCE MUGADZAWETA GOVERNMENT has begun rolling out an emergency road rehabilitation programme, which will run until 2024, in a bid to repair roads and bridges that are being destroyed by the incessant rains.
This was revealed in the National Assembly on Wednesday by Transport minister Felix Mhona. “The immediate phase is the one that is running. It started on March 1, 2021 and as we speak, engineers are seized in trying to come up with a programme to repair roads. The first phase will take 60 days, whereby we are going to address the issues of wash-aways, pothole filling and drain clearing,” Mhona said.
“In the next 60 days, the ministry (Transport) will be seized with trying to address that. We need to move with speed as Parliament, local authorities and rural district councils to take ownership of this programme.”
Makoni Central MP David Tekeshe then asked him to explain why most of the road infrastructure that was built after independence was the most affected, compared to that which was constructed prior to independence by the Ian Smith regime.
“It is our hope that every infrastructure is durable. I am happy that as a country, we now have a policy that looks into all the projects and infrastructure that is being constructed, to ensure that they are done properly through monitoring and evaluation. After a project has been completed, evaluations are made to ensure that they are of correct standards,” he said.
On the issue of compensation of those that have lost property due to the excessive rains, Mhona said there was no policy in that regard. “It is important to have a budget for people who have suffered losses like that. These are calamities that just come and they are not paid for.
So it is important for restoration to be done if such things occur, but let me suggest that as we converge in this House, it is important that all cars should be insured against accidents and the injury of persons that will be on those cars so that whatever happens then the insurance can compensate,” he said.
Government declared all roads in the country a state of disaster early this year and allocated $480 million towards their rehabilitation.l
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