Motorists to begin paying toll for Entebbe Expressway

A road toll station on the Entebbe Expressway at Kajjansi. Works and Transport ministry says the national road toll strategy will be gazetted by end of June. Photo/file

What you need to know:

  • The Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala, said his ministry has achieved 80 per cent of the targets.

Motorists will start paying road toll for Entebbe Expressway in July,  the Ministry of  Works and Transport Permanent Secretary, Mr Waswa Bageya, has said.
While presenting the ministry’s 2016 National Resistance Movement (NRM) Manifesto implementation performance report in Kampala on Friday, Mr Bageya said they are working with the Ministry of Finance to have the national road toll strategy gazetted by end of June. 
Mr Bageya said the amendment of the Roads Act, was meant to enable the enforcement of  the 2019 Tolling Policy.

“Tolling is a new phenomenon in the country. In 2019, Cabinet approved the tolling policy but the Solicitor General said the policy was not enough and needed amending the Roads Act. We have got a service provider to study the unit cost for various regions of the country,” he said.
Mr Edward Simbwa, the commissioner of public structures, who is spearheading the implementation, said: “We are discussing with the Ministry of Finance how to have the tolling strategy gazetted within a month,” he said.

The Minister of Works and Transport,  Gen Katumba Wamala, said his ministry has achieved 80 per cent of the targets.
Some of these include passing of the Traffic Road Safety Act, construction of one-border stop centres, and establishing ferries at Wanseko, Bukungu, Kagwara, Lake Bunyonyi, and Sigulu landing sites.

He added that they have embarked on renovating the metre-gauge railway line from Malaba to Kampala to facilitate transportation of goods, adding that construction of the standard gauge railway is on course despite delays occasioned by challenges in paying off project-affected persons to clear land for the construction works.
Gen Wamala said they are also developing the greater Kampala light railway system which will connect to Entebbe airport and will be instrumental in  solving traffic congestion  in he city.

“When we have an efficient bus service and the trains, naturally people will be attracted to the mass transport and the boda bodas (motorcycle taxi) will go away without anyone chasing them from the city,” he said.
Other ministries which presented their performance reports were that of Foreign Affairs and the East African Community Affairs.