By CHATULA KANGALI –

THE National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) has realised over K1.5 million in revenue from the toll gates recently installed in Central and Copperbelt provinces. The agency is currently recording a daily toll collection of K100,000 at the Mayumbi and Kafulafuta toll gates between Kabwe and Ndola districts. NRFA spokesperson Alphonsius Hamachila said in response to a Press query that the agency had so far collected over K1.5 million from the two toll gates. Mr Hamachila said that the agency had adopted a temporal technology of using a simple booth aimed at increasing revenue at a minimum cost. “The revenue generated from the toll gates will be ploughed back to maintain the same tolled roads. We will ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the collection and disbursement of toll revenue,” he said. He said the agency was currently implementing road tolling based on a ‘User Pay Principle,’ where all vehicle classifications were required to pay a fee, for use of a tolled road. “In order to ease the payment process, NRFA is developing additional payment modules such as pre-paid systems, local user and frequent user discounts and the cashless payment system. Already, the bulk fleet pre-payment system has commenced with some companies that operate large fleet of vehicles,” he said. Mr Hamachila said the agency was working on modalities to roll out the tolling programme across the ten provinces of Zambia in order to broaden the revenue base. He stated that the Agency was working at rolling out the tolling programme to other provinces in the country in order to broaden its revenue base. The toll tariff that is applying for inland toll gates is a fixed charge ranging from K10 to K250 depending on the weight of the vehicle.

By CHATULA KANGALI