The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) has announced the closure of two tollgates to pave way for scheduled rehabilitation.
In a notice seen by Pindula News, ZINARA said the two tollgates, one situated 9km west of Triangle on the Ngundu-Tanganda Road and the other 17.5km from Chivhu on the Chivhu-Nyazura Road stopped operating on Saturday, 31 December 2022. Said ZINARA:
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration would like to advise the motoring public that the Triangle and Magamba tollgates have been suspended with effect from 31st December 2022 in terms of Statutory Instrument 219 of 2022. The suspension of operations at these tollgates is part of our continuous operational review. Zinara takes this opportunity to thank the motoring public for their continued cooperation.
ZINARA said five other tollgates on the outskirts of cities and towns are set to be moved further out as the expanding urban areas lap around them.
This will make them once again highway tollgates and ease the financial burden on motorists living in peri-urban areas who were paying road tolls twice daily on their way to and from work.
Tollgates set to be relocated are:
i). Skyline,
ii). Dema,
iii). Lion’s Den,
iv). Umguza and
v). Shamva tollgate which is set to be moved to the 40km peg along the Harare-Nyamapanda Highway.
Other tollgates are to be upgraded to standard levels are:
a). Norton,
b). Esigodini,
c). Mushagashi,
d). Mupfurudzi and
e). Colleen Bawn.
Towards the end of December, the government started constructing toll plazas along the country’s major highways, according to senior officials.
There are 33 toll gates countrywide and at least two-thirds of the toll gates will be upgraded to toll plazas, officials said.
In May last year, ZINARA said it was making headway on plans to establish an e-tolling system to reduce operating costs from toll fee collection.
The system will allow motorists to pay upfront and then just drive, without stopping at tollgates while the fees are automatically deducted as they drive through. This is now common in many countries.
Toll fee collections totalled $1.2 billion in 2020, 556 per cent higher than the $183 million realised in 2019.