Published: 05 June 2018

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has met representatives of Zimborders, a company which won the tender to upgrade the Beitbridge border post.

The company representatives updated Cde Mnangagwa on the challenges they are facing in implementing the project when they met him at his Munhumutapa offices this evening.

The Cabinet has already approved the upgrading of Beitbridge Border Post at a cost of $239 million.

The government seeks to upgrade the road network to and from the bridge, install gate control infrastructure and erect a perimeter fence around the post.

Other facilities to be upgraded include the parking areas, commercial centre and staff accommodation.

The border post will also be computerised and have its lighting systems upgraded.

Beitbridge Border Post is one of the busiest inland ports in sub-Saharan Africa and links the northern and southern corridors, with 500 vehicles and 10 000 travellers passing through the port daily.

However, the border post is also one of the most porous in the entire region and lacks soft and hard infrastructure that includes information technology and inspection bays, among others, to deal with high volumes of traffic, which has resulted in a lot of inconvenience to travellers.

Travellers spend between six and 18 hours at the port of entry to complete immigration and customs formalities.

The clearance of commercial traffic can take up to three days.
- zbc

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