The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) gave the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and Tendy Three private limited, 45 days to have signed the contract and begun work in the city’s parking management system tender.
The company, which won the bid in July 2020 got the greenlight from Cabinet for them to start operations last month after BCC had submitted their papers to ZIDA. It has since been revealed that following the Cabinet approval the two parties have until end of next month to start implementing the project. Bulawayo town clerk Mr Christopher Dube said council has since set up a team tasked with engaging the company with the aim of meeting the set deadlines.
“ZIDA gave us 45 days to have signed the contract and start on the project so as a council we set up a team that will be working with the company so as to complete all the necessary logistics, I haven’t as yet got any feedback but I can safely say everything is on course,” said Mr Dube.
Commenting on the progress of the project, Tendy Three managing director, Mr Bongani Nyathi said they met with BCC officials last Thursday where various committees were set up to spearhead the implementation of the project.
“As of last Thursday we held our first meeting with BCC to map the way forward. During that meeting we set up a number of committees that will help in the implementation of this game changing project. In terms of when the physical works will begin, I am not yet at liberty to disclose these details but what I can say for now is that come next (this) week residents will surely start seeing some work taking place,” said Mr Nyathi.
He said to date everything was smooth sailing and they had not encountered any setbacks. According to the agreement, Tendy Three (Pvt.) Ltd will invest US$2,2 million into the project, which will have a capacity of 7 200 parking bays.
Some equipment worth US$700 000 has already been acquired for the project. The project will have an annual turnover of between US$1,1 million and US$1,8 million, and will create employment opportunities for 450 people.
The partnership will run for a period of six years.
Apart from revenue generation and employment creation, the other benefits of implementing the Vehicle Parking Management System are, real-time vehicle detection and recording, ability to guide motorists to available parking bays, allowing effective and efficient workforce management, convenience to the motoring public and the decongestion of urban roads.
The company was awarded after a shambolic tendering process which had seen council being dragged to court by one of the initial bidding companies — Megalithic — that accused the local authority of irregularly cancelling the tender when the company had won it.
After the courts finally allowed council to go ahead with the tender, town clerk Mr Christopher Dube in January last year flighted an advertisement in the local media calling for expressions of interest from companies for the designing and installation of the parking management system.
