Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba says the concession agreement which the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and Intelligent Mobility Solutions Limited has entered into to provide traffic management solutions and services at a $500 million will not require government to spend money.

Mushimba said this at a press briefing in Lusaka today.

He said the partnership with Intelligent Mobility Solutions Limited would introduce the use of electronic systems to enforce road traffic regulations.

“The procurement process for this project was in line with the dictates of the public private partnership Act of 2009 where the unsolicited bids are subject to an open tender in accordance with section 42 (6) of the Act. The project was advertised in the print media for a period of one month, and five competing bids were received and evaluated where Intelligent Mobility Solutions Limited which is a consortium of Kapsch of Australia and Lamise Trading was awarded the concession to implement the advanced Road Safety Management Solution and services,” Mushimba said.

“The project will invest in excess of $500 million over the next few years and for that amount of investment from the private sector, he has to be given enough time to recoup and recover that. And then the financial model that we did, that is what took us to the 17 years concession, that the 15 percent fees they will be getting on the value added services over 17 years. They will be able to recover this investment and its a build operator transfer type of model which means whatever infrastructure will be put up including these inspection centres across the country for RTSA, for vehicle fitness and many other things, all these things become government property when the 17 years end and without government putting in any money. I think thats a very good deal and very beneficial.”

He said that the concession would not take away any core responsibilities from RTSA.

“RTSA retain its core mandate of regulations, education, collection of road tax, driver licensing fees and carbon tax. While the concessionaire will enforce road safety and collect fines from traffic offences such as overloading, speeding and road user charges for vehicle inspection and registration,” said Mushimba.

“The partnership is intended to reduce the rising incidences of road crashes and fatalities to improve the road safety record of our country and improve the provision of services to the public. This partnership will help improve the performance of RTSA on its core mandate and build capacity in RTSA to use modern methods of law enforcement using electronic systems.”