Consultant assesses toll gates feasibility, says PPPC

Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC) has said a consultant who is conducting a feasibility study on toll gates is finalising assessments on key issues such as volume of traffic.

The project,  which kicked off with the feasibility study in October last year, is a government project aimed at raising finances for public road maintenance, rehabilitation and repairs.

In an interview this week, PPPC chief executive officer Jimmy Lipunga said the Australian consultant SMEC Holdings Limited will present final results on the study by March.

“The consultant is making final assessments on key issues such as volume of traffic to determine level of toll fees, but also an assessment on technical, financial and environmental to assess viability of the project.

“The consultant is looking at various roads to see traffic patterns and which areas to recommend for toll gates,” he said.

Lipunga said by rolling out the project, Malawi will join other countries in the region that have implemented this arrangement to boost revenue collection from road networks.

The toll gates—steel structures that are put up in highways and other major roads in a country—will help to boost revenue collection, according to Roads Fund Administration (RFA).

RFA procurement and public relations officer Masauko Mngwaluko earlier said the project will raise the much-needed funding for the maintenance of roads.

He said once functional, annual roads collections currently at K22 billion are expected to go up by K7 billion.