The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The ongoing US$300 million modernization works at Beitbridge are gradually being border efficiency and management system challenges which had become a perennial headache, an official has said.
In an interview, the acting head of immigration services (Beitbridge), Mr Trustworthy Manatsire said they had started witnessing the fruits of the project, especially from the separation of traffic.
He said traffic separation was a key goal considering that the service will now be sector-based.
The project is being rolled out in three phases including the freight terminal, ICT facilities, roads (phase 1), the buses and light motor vehicles terminals (phase 2), and the offsite works including the upgrading of water and sanitation facilities in Beitbridge town.
So far, the freight terminal is completed and the contractor, Zimborders Consortium is now working on the buses terminal, which will be fully operational in June, while the lighter vehicles terminal will be completed at the end of November.
“The truckers used to spend at least five days at the border, but now because they have a dedicated lane things have improved,” said Mr Manatsire.
“You will note that previously as the Department of immigration, we used to clear everyone at a single spot, including commercial truckers, pedestrians, buses, light vehicles, transit traffic.
But under this new set up, issues of border management and efficiency are improving as we seek to completely do away with congestion”.
Prior to the current modernizations works, the lack of appropriate infrastructure and non-automation the border post had in previous years created bottlenecks to the efficient movement of cargo and people.
Service providers including the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA), the police, and Agriculture plant, Immigration, Environmental Management Authority, Port Health, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), and other security agencies had to share limited space in one building.
“Previously, we had a cluster of service providers operating from a limited space. This was bad, especially taking into account the Covid19 pandemic.
Resultantly, commercial truckers had to take longer to access the border, which we feel is bad for business. Now they are moving faster and impediments are being addressed on the dot,” said Mr Manatsire.
It is understood that the human resources, commitment, and efficiency-based mindset on all Border-based personnel is going to be very critical in delivering service that matches the world-class infrastructure.
Transport Operators Association of Zimbabwe (TOAZ), chairman, Mr Albert Bere said recently that they have had many challenges including cargo movement delays in the previous set up at the border.
“It is pleasing to note that the best benefit so far, would be the elimination of the Container Depot (CONDEP) since all processes will now be completed within the border post,” he said.
“The new freight terminal offers a bigger space to take up to 12 commercial vehicles at a time for both north and southbound traffic. Thus, saving on truck downtime and parking charges at CONDEP is guaranteed.
“Recent updates from the contractor indicate that most of the traffic flow processes will be digitized and the coordination of the Government Agencies under such as setup will ensure accountability”. -@tupeyo
