Bulawayo City Council requires close to US$15 million to rehabilitate the road network in the city, city mayor, David Coltart, said on Monday.
In an interview, he said US$2 million which was allocated to the council by Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara) last year was far too short of the amount needed for exercise.
“You can’t run a business when your trucks have to drive on shoddy road networks. I was advised that the council received US$2 million from Zinara, but we need US$15 million to maintain at the most basic level of our roads,” he said.
Coltart implored the road authority to distribute funds to the cities and towns according to size, needs and generation capacity.
“There is no doubt in my mind that residents, businesses and industries (in Bulawayo) contribute more than US$2 million towards car licences. We need equitable distribution of such funds so that we rehabilitate our roads as this will allow our businesses and industries to function
properly,” he said.
He added that a good road network in the city was imperative for economic development. “Ultimately, a good road network contributes significantly to economic development and business and industries can flourish in our city,” he
said.
Last year, the government launched the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) Phase 2 to rehabilitate roads in cities and towns, which had been heavily damaged by rain, following failure by local authorities to maintain the infrastructure.
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