Planned upgrade of city infrastructure welcome

There is increasing need for a lasting solution to the rising traffic gridlock in Kampala. Therefore, news that the Japanese Government has offered Uganda Shs2.9b for a major infrastructure upgrade project to ease traffic flow in the city promises a major breakthrough (see Daily Monitor, February, 27).

This development comes when Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is grappling with severe traffic jam arising from potholed and narrow roads, reckless motorists and few traffic lights at city junctions, among others.

With an estimated day-time population of four million people, about 14,000 commuter taxis, more than 120,000 motorcycles - majority of which are boda bodas engaged in transporting passengers and goods, travelling and to and Kampala City becomes a headache, especially during peaking hours.
Therefore, any project or action that is meant to relieve Kampala of the congestion quandary is greatly welcome and must be embraced.

However, as has happened in the past, getting financial support for improving infrastructure to streamline traffic flow in the city has always been the easier part. The harder part is the implementation and management.

Recall that currently, Kampala City already has traffic lights at several road junctions. But just how many of these traffic lights are used to regulate the traffic flow? Instead, in spite of the functioning traffic lights, what we see are traffic officers managing and regulating traffic at many of these traffic light junctions. Considering that these lights are installed at huge costs to taxpayers’, one wonders why they are not allowed to play their rightful role.

But that is not the only problem. We also have roads in the city constructed with funding from our development partners not lasting the prescribed period. The implication is that even when we get financial support for a public project such as a road, we go and do shoddy work which lasts a very short time. In the end, we go back to square one. We need to stop messing up projects.

Worse still, it is possible that the city authorities do not have impeccable data that should form the basis for proper planning for the city. For instance, it is not clear how many commuter taxis or boda bodas are in the city. Remember that every attempt to register them ends up in confusion due to fights among rival operators and interests.

In the circumstances, it is important that before rolling out upgrading city infrastructure, the city authorities should first sensitise residents, business owners and law enforcers about their (projects) relevance and value.
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