Harare in massive street lighting project

Bridget Mabanda

The City of Harare, in partnership with Zesa Holdings and Rwanda Energy Group, has embarked on a street lighting project which is aiming at revamping the city’s lighting infrastructure.

The project falls under the smart partnerships agreement between Zimbabwe and Rwanda.

Speaking to Zimnow, City of Harare Acting Corporate Communications Manager Innocent Ruwende said council is aiming to install 1202 street lights throughout the major road networks in the city.

He said the revamping includes the removal of old cables and refurbishing old poles.

“The poles we are putting on are not new, they have always been on the road but we have refurbished and repainted them,” said Ruwende.

He also said that the council will install a back office with a management system that monitors vandalism as well as performance of the lights.

“The system enables the monitoring of performance and power consumption and if there are faults or anything untoward like vandalism, the system picks it up as it happens in real time from the back office,” he said.

He added that the system also allows council to put security cameras so that they will be able to view what happens on the roads.

The project is going to cover Airport and Seke roads, Julius Nyerere, the stretch of Samora Machel Avenue between Rekai Tangwena and Enterprise, Seventh Street, and Chancellor Avenue up to Churchill Avenue.

According to the council, Zesa is pre-financing the project and then council will pay fully for the project after completion and official opening.

Ruwende added that once the project is complete, it will make the neighbourhood safe, promoting opportunities of businesses to operate for longer periods as people will stay out late.

Of late, Zimbabwe and Rwanda have been working closely in a number of fields with President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealing recently that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda helped Zimbabwe to secure US$800 million funding for the rural electrification programme.

Kagame is expected to visit Zimbabwe soon as efforts to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries continue.

About two months ago Mnangagwa attended a summit on Africa’s Green Revolution in Rwanda’s capital Kigali.