Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
Herald Correspondent
Zinara has so far disbursed close to 1,5 million litres of fuel to road authorities as it moves to equip them to accelerate road rehabilitation works in line with the Government’s thrust of creating an upper middle-income economy by 2030.The fuel is an additional facility to the regular financial disbursements that Zinara makes to road authorities and councils who must use it for roadworks.
The fuel is for everything, from the trucks bringing materials and the heavy equipment to the graders on remote country roads. Authorities have to account for the fuel they receive in the same way they account for monetary transfers from Zinara.
A number of road authorities have confirmed receiving the fuel and were using it in their areas of operation.
The City of Harare, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Zinara fuel, has so far received 50 000 litres.
According to a work plan shared with Zinara by the City of Harare, the council has earmarked Manresa, Eddison Zvobgo Drive (former Quendon Road), Tynwald, Coronation Avenue in Greendale and other roads within the city for rehabilitation.
The scope of work will include reconstruction, reseals, grading, pothole patching, drain cleaning and kerb cleaning.
Marondera Municipality road engineer Itai Mashonganyika said the town had received 10 500 litres of fuel from Zinara and work will start next week on the roads they have earmarked for rehabilitation.
“We are targeting to attend to four roads using the fuel that we received from Zinara,” said Eng Mashonganyika.
“On some of the roads we are going to do reconstruction and some we are going to reseal and all these works we are going to do them inhouse.
“I also want to commend Zinara for the good working relationship that we have with them because even their provincial engineer is based here in Marondera, so all our issues are addressed timeously.”
Insiza district engineer Mthoniselwa Ndebele said: “Cumulatively so far, we have received 6 000 litres of fuel from Zinara. The first 2 000 litres that we received we have already acquitted and last week we received another 4 000 litres which we are going to use mainly to do general grading of various roads within the district.
“However, some of the roads were not attended to for a long time, so without additional material people may not notice the grading works, especially where we can encounter some rocks on the road.”
Zinara chief executive officer Mr Nkosinathi Ncube said they will continue to mobilise resources to upgrade the country’s road infrastructure to spur economic development across the country.
“We all know the important role that a good road network plays in every economy in terms of facilitating business and movement of goods and people,” said Mr Ncube.
“We will continue to mobilise resources to ensure that we fund the rehabilitation of our road network and to date we have disbursed 1 407 165 litres of fuel to road authorities.
“The fuel is supplementing the financial disbursements that we are also making to the road authorities.”
Some of the beneficiaries of Zinara fuel include the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) and the Department of Roads within the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development who are also undertaking various road works across the country.
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