Zambia will rely on
additional toll fees from
heavy-haul vehicles to
fund its aggressive road
sector development programme
which, amongst others, will see a
total of 10 400 kilometres of road
being upgraded.
“The Zambian government
recognises that good transport
infrastructure is crucial to
regional economic integration
and is investing in several surface
transport development initiatives,”
said Yamfwa Mukanga, Zambian
Minister of Public Works and
Transport, in Johannesburg
recently. The minister noted that
the projects would be funded by
the Zambian Road Development
Agency and that toll gates at
weighbridges would be a major
additional source of funding for
the projects.
Mukanga said that seven
toll gates had been erected at
weighbridges throughout the
country and tolls had been
claimed from trucks during the
first six months of 2014 as part
of a pilot project to test
the feasibility of raising funds
using this method. “We raised
just over US$30 million during
this period and have definitely
seen the potential,” he said.
As a result, the government
will be rolling this out to other
national roads, said Mukanga,
noting that actual toll gates
would be erected instead of
using weighbridges to ensure all
vehicles are tolled.
The road upgrades include
the Link Zambia 8000 project,
an initiative to upgrade and
develop roads linking all the
provinces with each other;
the L400 campaign which
will see the upgrade and
rehabilitation of roads in the
capital city; and the Pave 2000
programme which aims to pave
2 000 kilometres of urban and
township roads countrywide
using concrete paving blocks.
Makunga said the government was
also investing in several new onestop-
border-posts (OSBPs) and the
construction of bridges.
CAPTION
A construction crew works on the
L400 road upgrade campaign in the
Zambian capital city of Lusaka.
