THE Infrastructure ministry said yesterday it is engaging the African Development Bank to develop a comprehensive road toll framework.
The framework that could take up to three years to be operationalised will allow private investors to maintain, manage and operate major road highways with fees from motorists catering for their operational costs.
Principal secretary for Infrastructure John Musonik said the arrangement could be a long lasting solution to alarming losses running into hundreds of millions annually to theft of road furniture by unrelenting vandals. Musonik said theft of vital road furniture along Thika superhighway since its opening on November 9, 2012 amounts to almost Sh100 million.
This, he said, prompted the ministry to begin the tendering process for a private contractor on August 5 to maintain it because the road toll framework could take long to be implemented.
He however called on the National Assembly to prioritise debate and passage of the Scrap Metal Bill, approved last month by the cabinet, when it resumes from Christmas recess early next year. The bill proposes the establishment of Scrap Metal Council to regulate and monitor trade in the sub sector.
Installation of the road furniture, according to Kenya National Highways Authority, could cost up to 10 per cent of the total cost of building a road and its destruction is a massive loss to an economy struggling to fund construction of additional kilometres.
“The process could take up to three years as it requires necessary approvals including parliament and has to be informed by studies,” Kehna director general Meshack Kidenda said. Kidenda said AfDB would help with technical expertise in building capacity for the road toll framework.
Kenha is further spending an average of Sh1.2 million a month to guard metallic infrastructure on the road from the JKIA to the city centre. Other roads notorious for vandalism include Mombasa Road, Kisumu- Busia highway and Meru-Isiolo road.