Toll plazas raise K237m in 5 months

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 12:51:19 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

MORE than K236,947,467.90 has been collected from toll plazas in the period January to May this year , Infrastructure and Housing  Development  minister Ronald Chitotela has told Parliament.

Mr Chitotela however said K670 million is expected to be raised as annual revenue from the 20 toll plazas and Government has plans to bring the number of toll stations to 40.

Mr Chitotela said Government also intended to construct a total of 20 in-house land toll plazas of varying architectural designs across the country by the end of this year and the construction will depend on commercial viability of the roads.

“The national road tolling programme will continue to be a beacon of hope and a model for sustainable financing  of road infrastructure projects in the country  in light of limited fiscal space and competing national  needs,’’ Mr Chitotela  said.

And Mr Chitotela said Government was fully aware that some road users might be negatively affected by the introduction of road toll gates, hence it had introduced measures to cushion the negative impact by providing discounts  for the frequent road users and local road users residing  within a 10 km radius of the toll facilities.