Welcome efforts to decongest the city
This newspaper reported that the government plan to relocate buses from the city centre to the outskirts died in its infancy. Under the relocation plan, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) had envisaged an organised bus transport system operating outside the city.
However, later it allowed private individuals to build their own counter-terminals in the heart of the city which has further exacerbated the gridlock in the city, and its surroundings.
Traffic jam is costing Uganda billions in Gross Domestic Product every year.
According to the plan, buses were supposed to be relocated according to the routes they ply and as such, all buses operating in the city centre would be relocated to three terminals; Nateete, Bwaise and Banda.
Buses plying the northern route would operate at Bwaise terminal, north of Kampala; buses plying the eastern route would operate at Banda terminal while buses for the western route would operate at Nateete/Busega terminal.
This relocation would have helped to ease traffic on our already narrow roads. This is not to say that buses and bus terminals in the city are the only causes of traffic congestion, but it would be one of the ways of decongesting the city.
Traffic congestion disrupts business activities and reduces productivity level, costs lives of the people and damages environment in form of pollution. Now the situation has been escalated by creation of illegal taxi stages by errant operators, truck drivers and boda boda operators.
Streets and roads are congested as taxi drivers, boda boda riders, truck drivers and vendors all scramble for business space in the city.
Under the relocation plan, KCCA had envisaged an organised bus transport system operating outside the city so that city residents can transact business in freer environments. Traffic congestion in the city has become a menace, people spend many man hours stuck in jam, burn more fuel and even leads to accidents sometimes.
To decongest the city, all taxi parks and bus terminals must be relocated to the periphery areas to reduce the traffic gridlock they cause.
Kampala is grappling with at least 20 illegal bus terminals and multiple illegal taxi stages, which make most of the city roads impassable.
It becomes a nightmare to wade through the city during peak hours.
