Ashley Masakadza

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has banned the erection of new Billboards on road servitudes to declutter the road space  for the safety of road users.

In a statement,  the Ministry said the recent proliferation of billboards is disturbing the seamless flow of traffic and disturbing motorists from seeing road sights.

“Some of the billboards are precariously erected too close to the road, thus posing as a menacing danger to the seamless flow of traffic. Further, some billboards are randomly erected in such a way that they are now competing with road signs and are distorting the aesthetics, splendor and good looks of the urban environments.

“The Ministry is empowered in terms of Section 48 of the Roads Act [Chapter 13:18] to regulate and restrict trade or any form of commercial activities along road servitudes of trunk roads under its administration. In light of the above, no person shall, without the written permission of the Department of Roads, carry on any trade or expose, offer or manufacture for sale any goods on a road or in any area alongside a road within a distance of sixty meters from the boundary of a road or in any area within five hundred meters from any point of intersection without prior approval.

“In view of the recent proliferation of the billboards, the Ministry wishes to notify members of the public that with immediate effect, it has suspended the processing of requests for the erection of billboards and the issuance of authority to advertise on billboards along and within the servitudes of the trunk roads under its control.

“The Ministry undertakes to carry out a thorough audit of all the said billboards, with the view to declutter the road servitude spaces and remove all the illegal billboards for safer and trafficable roads as well as the good outlook of the country’s urban centres,” reads the statement.