Long queues at tollgates in the country is going to be a thing of the past as government through the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA) will soon rehabilitate and construct modern tollgates on the nation’s major highways.
Addressing the media during a tour along the Harare and Masvingo-Beitbridge highway yesterday, ZINARA chief executive officer, Nkosinathi Ncube said the current infrastructure in the nation is now strained due to high volumes of traffic being experienced.
”One of the issues about tollgates is that, traffic has increased therefore the volume of cars has also increased. For instance as a country in 2015, we had about 700 000 registered cars and now we have over 1,1 million cars registered.” He said.
In the next few months, construction of the new modern Skyline tollgate will commence while another one will be constructed in Dema.
He added that the infrastructure in the country is under strain because of many vehicles.
”Within a space of four years we recorded almost half a million new cars. This means that the infrastructure that we have is under strain and this is the same infrastructure that is servicing all these vehicles.” He said.
Mr Ncube said online payments are being used and the biggest challenge is on the payment of infrastructure.
”Right now we use online payments and point of sale terminals so sixty to seventy percent of the vehicles that pass through tollgates use swipe and swiping on its own takes almost 30 seconds, and 30 seconds on highway during a busy time creates high volume and queues.” Ncube said.
He added that currently they are recruiting more staff during busy hours to ease congestion.
Furthermore, Ncube said they are moving to E -tolling.
”Our long term is to move to E-Tolling to improve on our infrastructure. The two critical points are that we will be changing some of the tollgates and put proper infrastructure, the same we have on Plumtree-Mutare highway tollgates. ”He added.
He added that, E-Tolling is going to be driving the new infrastructure going forward and that with the E – Toing motorists will spend less time on the tollgates.
