Tuesday 26 July 2011

Mozambique to push forward with private toll roads

Times Live South Africa reports that Nuno Mapossa of the Investment Promotion Centre in Mozambique has said that a toll road will be built between Mozambique’s capital Maputo and the KwaZulu-Natal northern coast. It would greatly enhance access which is currently available by road only on a 130km dirt route.

Chairman of the Mozambique Roads Fund, Elias Paulo, was reported by Macauhub as saying that guidelines for three new private concession toll roads will be prepared before the end of 2011. Furthermore:

According to Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias, the government plans to grant concessions on the Maputo-Maxixe section of National Road 1, as well as National Road 6 linking Beira to Machipanda, on the border with Zimbabwe and National Road 7, which links Vanduzi in Manica province, to Changara in Tete province.

Mozambique’s first private concession highway, EN4 from Maputo to the South African border, has been a success, with 35,000 vehicles a day compared to forecasts of only 13,000.  Mozambique has had a hypothecated roads fund since 1990, which has successfully ensured that taxes collected from road users (e.g. from fuel taxes) are dedicated to maintaining the road network.  This is inadequate to fund major improvements, which has encouraged the government to use tolling to allow major strategic highway improvements to be self funding over time.

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