Transport is indispensable to economic and social development in any country be it a developed or developing country like Zimbabwe. There are 88,100 km of classified roads in Zimbabwe, 17,400 km of which are paved. About 5 percent of the network is classified as primary roads and has some of the most trafficked arterials that link Zimbabwe with its neighbours. A portion of the Pan-Africa Highway passes through Zimbabwe. This part of the road network plays a major role in the movement of the country’s imports and exports as well as transit freight. Some 14 percent of the network is classified as secondary roads that link the main economic canters within the country, enabling internal movement of people and goods. The primary and secondary roads are collectively referred to as the trunk road system; they carry over 70 Percent of the vehicular traffic (measured in vehicle kilometres) and they are managed by the Department of Roads (DoR). A little more than 70 percent of the network is made up of tertiary feeder and access roads that link rural areas to the secondary road network. These are managed by the District Development Fund (DDF) and by the District Councils (DC). The tertiary access roads, together with the unclassified tracks, typically with traffic volumes below 50 vehicles per day, provide for the intra-rural access movements. They link rural communities to social economic amenities, such as schools, health centres, and markets, and enable government services to reach rural areas. The remaining 9 percent of the network are urban roads managed by urban councils. The road density in Zimbabwe is about 0.23 km per square km. This is high compared with many developing countries; it is comparable to that of the high income, non-OECD countries and lower middle-income countries. Only OECD countries have a substantially higher road density than Zimbabwe. The implication is that a relatively high proportion of the population has access to the road network of the country. Moreover, Zimbabwe has a very substantial road network relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The replacement value of the road network asset is estimated at about $10 billion, equivalent to almost three times the current level of GDP. This ratio is high in comparison with many developing countries, and it gives some insight into the current large economic burden of maintaining the road network. Department of Roads The DoR has significant influence in the road sector. It has a proud history of achievement in road construction and maintenance, having developed a national road network that was once considered among the best in Africa. The development of this network was a significant contributor to the growth of a modern economy in Zimbabwe in the 1950s and 1960s. Research and field experience carried out by the DoR resulted in road design standards and construction methods that are based on international standards, yet adapted for local conditions. These standards and work methods are well documented and are well understood by practitioners in the government and the private sector. The DoR is responsible for the development and maintenance of primary and secondary roads, which form the most strategically important part of the national road network. The Department maintains the roads through a network of maintenance camps based on a force account system. District Development Fund The DDF was established by the government in 1981 to handle the development agenda in rural areas by supporting the development of communal, resettlement, and small-scale commercial farming areas. Its functions, institutional structure, and reporting lines have evolved over time. The organization reports to the Office of the President and Cabinet, but its status is unique in that it is neither a parastatal nor a government department. It is responsible for a multiplicity of functions which focus on assistance to communal resettlement and small scale commercial farming areas CONDITION OF THE ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE The current condition of the network is not known with accuracy, but it is clear that it has declined significantly since the mid- 1990s as a result of the lack of funding for routine and periodic maintenance. Most of the deterioration has occurred on urban roads and on the unpaved rural road network. In general, the paved trunk road system managed by the DoR was maintained to reasonably high levels and suffered minimal deterioration between 1995 and 2005. During this period, there was a drop of only 10 percent (from 90 to 80 percent) of the proportion of primary roads in “good” condition. However, according to the World Bank (2006), only 24 percent of the entire network was in “good” condition in 2005 and 40 percent was in “poor” condition. By 2005, the part of the network with the highest proportion of roads in “poor” condition was the secondary unpaved roads with 55 percent in “poor” condition. Overall, the paved urban roads and the unpaved rural road networks were most affected by the lack of funding for maintenance. The period 2005-08 was characterized by a sharp decline in the state of an already ailing economy and in general, little was done in terms of road rehabilitation and maintenance. For the purposes of this Report, the DoR prepared an estimate of the condition of the road network in 2009. In the absence of detailed assessments of actual road conditions, the estimate is based on the extrapolation of the pre-2005 data in combination with limited informal visual surveys. Only about 20 percent of the total network is in good condition and therefore requires only regular routine maintenance. A little less than 40 percent of the network is judged to be in fair condition at this time and therefore in need of a sustained program of periodic maintenance in the decade ahead. The bulk of the roads in fair condition are unpaved secondary roads, paved urban roads, and the tertiary roads. About 40 percent of the network, equivalent to about 36,000 km, is in poor condition and requires a sustained program of rehabilitation in the decade ahead: • The paved section of the primary road system is in relatively better condition than the rest of the network. About 25 percent of the unpaved truck network remains in poor condition as was the case a decade ago. • The bulk of the rehabilitation problem stems from the secondary and tertiary road networks, where about 45 percent of the network is believed to be in poor condition. • The bulk of the urban roads are paved, but about 25 percent of this network is judged to be in poor condition. Growth of the Vehicle Fleet Information about the total number of vehicles and motor cycles registered in Zimbabwe as of end 2009 is reported by the Central Vehicle Registry to be 828,395. Details about the growth in the vehicle fleet during the past decade are not available because of deficiencies in the vehicle registration database. For the purposes of this Report, therefore, a rough estimate of the annual vehicle fleet has been made using data from a variety of sources. The number of motor cycles has remained relatively stable at a little below 200,000 in the past decade. The vehicle fleet (excluding motorcycles) is estimated to have increased from about 442,000 in 2000 to about 629,000 by 2009, an average increase of about 4 percent a year. The most rapid growth has been in buses and kombis, both of which have doubled in numbers in the past decade, and in heavy trucks with weights of more than 9 MT. Much of the growth in this part of the trucking industry has occurred in the past four years in response to the sharp decline in the capacity of the national rail system to meet demand for freight movements. The other notable point about these traffic data is the number of motor vehicles per 1,000 people in Zimbabwe—at an estimated 48 in 2009—is in line with the average for lower middle income developing countries around the world, and is higher than many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The underlying assumption here is that GDP grows at only 4 percent a year in real terms during 2011- 20. With a multiplier of 1.25 for the transport sector, the vehicle fleet grows at 5 percent a year. If the GDP growth rate was 5 percent a year in real terms, the vehicle fleet would increase to about 1.6 million by 2020 at an average rate of increase of 6.25 percent a year. The stronger economic growth and larger fleet would have important implications for government revenues from road user charges and for traffic densities on the primary road network. At present, Zimbabwe has about 7 vehicles (other than motorcycles) per kilometer of road. This ratio would rise to about 12 vehicles per kilometer by 2020, assuming that the fleet increases by only 5 percent a year in the decade ahead. The total fleet, including motor cycles and trailers, would be about 1.4 million vehicles by 2020. Several important implications flow from this rather conservative scenario for future traffic growth. First, traffic densities on the primary road network, which carries the bulk of the traffic, will increase. Sections of this part of the network will require upgrades and expansion of the ongoing dualization program. Road Traffic Densities Traffic densities are available for most sections of the regional road network. With the decline of the economy in the past decade, average traffic density on the regional network declined steadily until 2009 when there was a sharp recovery in transport activity that reflected the reversal in economic decline of the preceding decade.