PM launches Tatura, new agency to improve rural roads
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa
What you need to know:
- Mr Majaliwa gave the directive while at The Institute of Rural Development Planning in Dodoma Region.
- He said roads under Regional Administration and Local Government (Tamisemi) were the ones propelling the country’s economy, explaining that such roads were supposed to be given a priority.
Dodoma. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa yesterday launched the Tanzania Rural-Urban Road Agency (Tarura), which he used to address rural road challenges.
Mr Majaliwa gave the directive while at The Institute of Rural Development Planning in Dodoma Region.
He said roads under Regional Administration and Local Government (Tamisemi) were the ones propelling the country’s economy, explaining that such roads were supposed to be given a priority.
Tarura will oversee all the roads under Tamisemi as the former was established and announced in the Government Gazette no. 211 of June in 2017 after a long time cry from Members of Parliament.
The Prime Minister said that the roads had for long looked like ants as some people lacking good ethics, including councilors and directors, would now and then embezzle funds by naming one road more than four times.
Besides that, he said there was bureaucracies regarding the roads, explaining that most of them were reconstructed below standard, he continued by stating that there was nobody to be hold responsible.
“From now on, I do not expect to see the implementation of roads construction, which is below standard while road renovations being carried out in the same areas, which is something questionable.”
For his part, the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Tamisemi), Mr George Simbachawene, requested the Prime Minister to weigh up the allocation of cash from the Roads Fund.
The Minister said Tamisemi was getting 30 pc and the rest, which is 70 pc, was allocated for national roads, adding that funds located to Tamisemi were not enough.
Mr Simbachawene said further that the lack of enough funds was blocking the implementation of Tamisemi’s road construction projects. He also admitted that the management of roads before Tarura was completely unsatisfactory.
Earlier, Tamisemi’s Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Mussa Iyombe, said Tarura was now a solution to contractors’ disputes, explaining that the latter have now gotten the right place to present their claims.
