City planners should modernise taxi parks

Back in time after my study tours and studies in London, Rotterdam in Netherlands and Copenhagen in Demark, I realised that the parking of vehicles can be done in basements and upstairs in numerous places including airports. 

In Kampala there are some properties with similar facilities. With what I saw in Europe and Israel, and comparing it with  the congestion and confusion in the Old Park I felt that our capital city could benefit from the transport technology I had seen overseas.

So I wrote an article which was published in the New Vision suggesting that the Old Park be modernized and made more efficient. I suggested that it is  redeveloped into stroyed and basement parking such that vehicles travelling to the West and South could park down on the ground floor while those travelling to the East and North could park on the upper floors of the park because being the central place for many business activities the Old Tax Park attracts many stakeholders. 

Some stakeholders responded with positive comments but the city physical planners remained dead silent.
Sadly, up to now we are still grappling with unsustainable parking plans which need to be integrated with flyovers to make Kampala really modern and rich.

I believe that if such an idea was implemented the endless struggles at the Old Taxi Park would cease and a lot of resources would be saved on duplication of taxi parks in different city locations. My question to planners is that why can’t  we have a real modern storeyed park with lifts at the Old Taxi Park whose landscape actually favours that type of infrastructure? The new storeyed park can be integrated with many other facilities for travellers and the business community. Our planners need to imagine how much income, tax revenue and profits would be realised from that limited ground space but with unlimited skyline.

Paul Nambi,
[email protected]