RA to digitize road network

The Roads Authority has said it is working on digitising the country’s road network to help road users to easily access information on conditions of the roads.

Speaking on Wednesday, when Roads Authority (RA) appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communications, the authority’s acting chief executive officer Francis Dimu said through such a platform, the public will be able to see which roads to use and, also, check how long the distances are.

He said: “We are digitising the road network. We will be done with the process this financial year.”

Dimu further informed the committee that a number of roads in the country need rehabilitation and not periodic maintenance which involves patching potholes.

“The state of some of sections of the roads is that you will fix a pothole today and you find another one developing the next day,” he said, adding that it will require a lot of money to fix the roads.

Members of the committee said they were not happy with the conditions of most roads in the country, a situation which they said is causing a lot of damage to vehicles and posing a threat to lives.

Rumphi East legislator Kamlepo Kalua said he counted over 3 400 potholes on the Blantyre-Lilongwe Road, adding that his vehicle was damaged due to one of the potholes.

He wondered if the RA will be compensating people for damage caused to their vehicles due to bad roads.

The committee’s chairperson Susan Dossi said the digitisation of the road network will be in line with the Malawi 2063 development agenda, and that the committee would want to be updated on progress of the digitisation process.