KCCA to build sh63b traffic control tower

This reporter has since learnt that the authority has secured a grant worth Japanese Yen 2.44b (sh63b) which will be used to kickstart the initiative.

A press statement released by the authority yesterday indicated that signalisation of 27 junctions and the removal of five roundabouts in the city are some of the other interventions besides building a traffic control tower the authority will undertake.

The five roundabouts include: Rwenzori courts, Mulago, Grand Imperial, Mulago mortuary and Kubiri.

KCCA said the project is a Japanese traffic control system called Management of Origin-Destination Related Adaptation for Traffic Opitmisation (MODERATO).

The statement added: “This is part of the technical cooperation project named The Project of Capacity Enhancement of KCCA in Management of Traffic Flow in Kampala City launched between KCCA and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).”

A parliamentary report on traffic congestion in Kampala released last year (2022) indicated that an individual Ugandan losses about 52 working days due to traffic congestion.

The report showed that Ugandans spend 90 minutes a day in gridlock, which translates to 450 minutes or 7.5 hours a workweek.

 This, the report further indicated, is equivalent to losing one working day to traffic jams each week.

Losing this much working hours daily is costing the economy in Kampala hundreds of millions of dollars annually, the parliamentary Committee on the National Economy noted.

 A 2020 research paper dubbed “The cost of congestion in Kampala, Uganda” by the International Growth Centre (IGC) shows around sh5.7b or $1.5m—equivalent to 4.2 percent of the Greater Kampala area’s daily GDP—is lost to traffic congestion.