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Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Government will soon demolish all make shift tollgates and replace them with state of the art toll plazas, Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu has said.

Dr Mpofu said the conditions at some of the tollgates left a lot to be desired.

“Yes it is true that the Hwange toll gate is still an open space structure and that is a sad state of affair. In the next few months we will start replacing all makeshift tollgates and plazas as we move towards attaining the standards we want,” said Dr Mpofu.

“We are bringing in more proper toll plazas, over and above what we have because the conditions on some of them leave a lot to be desired.”

The minister could not be drawn into giving timeframes or details on how many toll plazas will be built.

The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) had computerised some of the tollgates with the nine toll plazas on the 820km highway from Plumtree to Mutare using cyber technology in a bid stop motorists from driving unlicenced vehicles on the country’s highways.

There are close to 30 tollgates on the country’s roads, including the ones that are incomplete.

Dr Mpofu recently announced an imminent increase in toll fees by almost 100 percent, saying what government was currently collecting was too little to sustain the national road rehabilitation programme.

“There is a misconception that Zinara is abusing toll fees, this is not true because Zinara collects only $40 million annually and that cannot build more than 30 km of road,” he said without elaborating where funding for the new rehabilitation project would come from.

Meanwhile, Dr Mpofu said they will soon engage driving schools with a view of reviewing the driving curriculum as government forges ahead with ban on public transport drivers below the age of 35.

Government’s recently announced it was reviewing the Highway Code with a view to raising the minimum age required for public transport drivers to 35 from the current 25 years.

Defending the move, Dr Mpofu said people were not being resistant but needed to be explained to.

“People are not resisting…they just need to understand how it will be done. This is a democratic country and we will consult. We are not saying those below 35 should not drive, all we are saying is that they should not be subjected to public vehicles because we need maturity and experience in such issues,” he said adding that the decision was in line with international trends.

Added Dr Mpofu: “Maybe it has to do with training methods because we cannot have the same kind of behaviour countrywide-that means it could be coming from training methods. We will soon engage driving schools and look at the curriculum.”

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