By Innocent Mujeri
Following complaints by motorists over delays at tollgates closer to Harare, the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (Zinara) is set to introduce a raft of measures to minimise the delays.
Motorists travelling to Harare have endured frustrating delays at most tollgates that are dotted just outside Harare. The delays are witnessed at tollgates such as Skyline along Harare–Masvingo, Ruwa along Harare-Mutare, Chryston Bank along Harare–Bindura and Norton along Harare-Bulawayo road.
An insider from Zinara told this publication that the delays at tollgates are going to be a thing of the past as new measures to eliminate queues are set to be introduced soon.
“Zinara is set to introduce an avalanche of measures to mitigate and eventually eliminate delays that are currently being witnessed at tollgates. These measures include the introduction of prepaid tolling cards, issuance of toll coupons and the expansion of current toll plazas to accommodate more traffic,” said the source who preferred anonymity.
The prepaid tolling cards, the source said, were for toll fees payment and can be tapped against the merchant device when making a payment. The prepaid tolling cards are to work the same as tap cards used by Zupco buses.
However, the brilliance of the prepaid tolling cards is that they can work offline, hence taking a transaction period of just two to three seconds.
This is a commendable innovation as erratic network caused by power outages has been cited as the major cause for delays at toll gates as mobile payments and electronic payment systems are mostly down due to the unavailability of stable network.
The source also revealed that Zinara is at an advanced stage with various banks and Fidelity Printers and Refinery for the issuance of toll coupons. The coupons are redeemable at tollgates and when introduced, motorists can purchase them from banks, supermarkets and Zinara offices.
Zinara is already working on modalities of developing an electronic gadget to ease toll payment. The electronic gadget will be loaded with funds and then inserted in vehicles. The funds will be automatically deducted at toll plazas through the use of Bluetooth and cameras.
The electronic gadget is expected to work the same way the electronic road pricing used in Singapore and e-tolling payment system used in South Africa.
Furthermore, Zinara is working hand in glove with the Department of Roads for the expansion of tollgates to accommodate the huge volume of traffic in Zimbabwean high ways. The current tollgates are being overwhelmed by the increase of traffic in roads.
In a recent interview with the Harare Post, an official from Zinara who preferred anonymity said delays at tollgates were sometimes caused by different electronic payment system as some systems can connect faster to banks while others are slow. The official further said some banks can’t connect to others through the national payment system and this causes delays at toll plazas.
Inadequate infrastructure has also been cited as another cause of the delays as the current infrastructure is being overwhelmed by huge volume of traffic plying the highways.
The raft of measures to mitigate delays at tollgates is a welcome development as queues of traffic at some tollgates were meandering up to over 200 metres due to the network challenges on mobile and electronic payment systems as well as inadequate infrastructure.
