Beitbridge Town Council will install more traffic lights to control high volumes of vehicular traffic that pass through the town daily. The town council has so far set up robots at two intersections at the Zesa Complex/Harare Road and the Main Road/Dulibadzimu bus terminus turn off.

Accidents had become common at these intersections.The traffic lights are running on a council generator and will only be commissioned after they are connected to the Zesa grid.

An average of 3 000 trucks and 3 500 private cars pass through the town on daily basis, while about the same number belongs to local residents.

Official figures show that 1 200 cars were registered in the border town in 2011. According to the last population census the town has around 30 000 people, but that number has increased due to its proximity to South Africa and high economic activity.

Beitbridge Town secretary Dr Sipho Singo recently said the idea to install traffic lights was mooted in last year's fiscal budget. He said the two new robots would be installed at intersections at Cariners/CBD Road and Holiday Inn/Main Road.

"So far we have completed carrying out feasibility studies and surveys in consultation with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development and at the moment we are in the midst of acquiring the requisite material," Mr Singo said.

"We expect work on these sites to begin as soon as we get material onsite. Basically, we are implementing capital projects in our budget. "This project marks an important development in the province and the country as a whole because the border town is the preface of the country."

Mr Singo said the traffic lights were being installed at intersections that had become black spots."We want to safeguard the lives of our people and their properties. The volume of traffic here is very high considering that we cater for the local and transit population," he said.

"You will realise that our town lies on one of the busiest ports of entry in Southern Africa. Most of our roads need a lot of controls and hence as a local authority we have decided to install traffic lights."

Mr Singo said they were working on putting proper signage to notify motorists of the existence of traffic lights.