Toll plazas raise K450m in 2016

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 08:03:28 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

FOUR hundred and fifty million Kwacha has been raised from toll gates in 2016, National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) acting chief executive officer Wallace Mumba has disclosed.

The three inland toll stations at Miyumbi, Kafulafuta and Kafue contributed around 10 percent of the overall annual toll revenue from the ports of entry and weighbridges.

He said currently three permanent modern toll plazas were under construction in Shimabala, Mumbwa and Chisamba which would be commissioned within the first quarter of 2017.

“Within 2016 NRFA has commissioned three toll stations using simple booth and boom technology and brought in new stream of revenue particularly for sustainable road maintenance and we raised K450 million in form of tolls from all collection points,” Mr Mumba said.

Mr Mumba said the agency also had plans to open more toll gates in the first quarter of 2017 which was in line with the agency’s move to enhance domestic resource mobilization through initiatives such as tolling.

He disclosed that the agency was also undertaking studies to determine the commercial viability of tolling on other sites such as the Kasama-Luwingu-Mansa, Sesheke-Sioma bridge and the Mongu-Kalabo roads among others.

“Other upcoming toll sites within 2017 include Levy Mwanawasa between Ndola and Kitwe’s Garnerton, between Kitwe and Chingola, Kapiri Mposhi along Great North Road, Kasama-Mbala road, Choma, Solwezi-Mutanda junction, Nyimba, Petauke, Katete and Chipata,” he said.

He said there was high demand for roads by Zambians across the country, hence there was a need to find ways of mobilizing resources to meet the challenge.

Mr Mumba explained that since 2011 to date, it had been iconic for the road sector having seen an upswing in the overall road infrastructure investment with over  K24 billion out of the K33.5 billion  allocated to the sector, representing 72 percent of the total investment during the last 10 years.

“We have grown having started with a humble budget of K849 million in 2006 to K6.6 billion in 2016, giving a total budgetary allocation of K33.5 billion by the end of 2016,” Mr Mumba said.

He noted that there was demand for the road infrastructure development in the country and subsequently maintenance kept growing and resources were limited, hence the need to be more innovative to focus on home-grown solutions and road tolling was one effective way to achieve this. Mr Mumba however said the available resource from road user charges of K1.8 billion in 2016 and about K 2.1 billion in 2017 were not enough to meet the minimum maintenance requirement, hence the maintenance was preserving the road asset whose value was currently estimated at US $ 8.3 billion.