Buhera West Member of Parliament Joseph Chinotimba’s question seeking clarification about the dualisation of roads may have helped many. But it needed a follow-up on what the average cost per kilometre of dualisation would be and whether traffic densities on our major highways support it.
By Tapiwa,Our Reader
If Airport Road is anything to go by, it might require $3 million per km.
That would make the close to 1 000km Beitbridge to Chirundu road cost $3 billion. With at most 5 000 vehicles using the road daily, at an average fee of $20 per vehicle, it will net $100 000 per day, or $37 million per year. At a concessionary interest rate of 3% per annum, Zimbabwe would need $90 million annually to service the interest charges alone.
Projects of this nature need to be funded from the fiscus in thinly-populated countries, and even then provided the costs are fully understood.
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That does not seem to be the case with the dualisation programme. What we may afford are wider highways with road shoulders, good markings and some limited dualisation where traffic is particularly heavy, like near cities or at notorious black spots.