Maputo-Katembe crossing: Scheme for discounted bridge tolls takes effect

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Maputo-Katembe crossing: Scheme for discounted bridge tolls takes effect

7:24 CAT | 26 Nov 2018

Photo: Twitter / @MNBCNewsOnline

The scheme for discounted tolls on the suspension bridge across the Bay of Maputo begins on Monday, according to an announcement from Maputo-Sul, the public company that operates the bridge.

Owners of light vehicles wishing to benefit from the discount scheme must fill out a form available from Maputo-Sul, and provide a photograph of the vehicle with its number plate clearly visible.

They must then buy a pre-paid card for a minimum of 500 meticais (about 8.3 US dollars) and pay an advance of 320 meticais (equivalent to two normal crossings of the bridge). The discounts will then be processed automatically, depending on how many trips over the bridge, between central Maputo and the outlying municipal district of Katembe, the vehicle makes in a month.

A car that crosses the bridge between 11 and 20 times a month is entitled to a seven per cent discount, bringing the toll down from 160 to 148 meticais per trip. If the car makes between 21 and 30 crossings, the discount rises to 13 per cent, and each crossing is charged 139 meticais.

Between 31 and 40 crossings a month the discount is 20 per cent. It rises to 33 per cent if the vehicle crosses the bridge between 41 and 50 times a month, and to 46 per cent when the frequency is 51 to 60 times a month.
Any vehicle that makes over 60 crossings a month qualifies for a 60 per cent discount, bringing the toll down to 64 meticais.

60 crossings a month is twice a day, and Katembe residents who drive to work in Maputo could well use the bridge that much. Before the bridge was inaugurated, on 10 November, the only way motorists could go from Katembe to Maputo or vice versa was on a ferry which charged 250 meticais for a light vehicle on weekdays and 300 meticais at weekends.

These frequent user tolls are quite separate from the 75 per cent discount given to passenger transport buses and minibuses and to tractors.

Similar reductions are in force at the toll gate at Bela Vista, on the road from Katembe to Ponta de Ouro, on the border with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal. The normal toll for light vehicles here is 100 meticais, but a vehicle crossing the toll gate over 60 times a month will pay just 40 meticais each time.

Vehicles that are entirely exempt from the tolls are ambulances, fire engines, and police or military vehicles when on duty.

The discounted tolls have been approved by the government, and Maputo-Sul warns that it has no power to offer any further discounts.

The release points out that the money raised by the tolls will be used for maintenance of the bridge and the road southwards, and to provide good quality services to the users. In other words, the money will not be used to repay the 785 million dollar loan from the Chinese ExIm Bank, which was the main source of funding for the bridge and its connecting roads.

The discounts are only available for light vehicles, not for trucks.

Source: AIM