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By Elvis Dumba
Raffingora – Motorists who use the Raffingora Road that links Banket and Guruve are elated after the contractor rehabilitating the poor road moved on-site to start the road rehabilitation under the government emergency road rehabilitation program.
Most motorists were shunning the roads due to the poor state of the road that saw public transporters including Zupco shunning the route.
The road rehabilitation program follows the intervention of Zvimba North Constituency legislator Marian Chombo who has been engaging the department of roads under the Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure who were delaying work on the road.
Chombo said the road is important as it is the gateway for Mashonaland West Province into Mashonaland Central Province and its poor state was affecting trade between the two provinces as well affecting agricultural activities in the area served by the road.
“The rehabilitation program for Banket-Raffingora-Guruve is very important not just for the farmers around the area but it’s very important for our Province. It is the link between Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central Province. The road was in a poor state due to incessant rains. That delayed the rehabilitation program but we are happy now that progress has started as we move with President Emerson Mnangagwa’s vision of leaving no place or anyone behind,” she said.
Dr. Fanuel Marowa, a farmer said the community is grateful to the legislator who has pushed for the rehabilitation of the road as it will assist in the smooth delivery of their agricultural produce.
“We are very grateful to our Member of Parliament because the road is now being worked on. This will go a long way in ensuring that we as farmers are able to take our products to the market cheaper as transporters were charging high prices on condition of the bad state of the road,” he said.
Frank Murisa, a public transporter using “mushika-mushika” said they were now charging up to three times the normal fares due to the poor road.
“The road had been destroyed by the rains so we had to pass the vehicle maintenance costs to our passengers by charging more since you know that after every trip something on the car will not be fine so we are happy that the road is now being worked on,” he said.