Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) wants over Shs81bn to finance traffic flow control master plan, that they say will go a long way towards reducing traffic jam within the city.
The revelation was made by Robert Kyukyu, Manager Strategy Management at KCCA while appearing before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee.
The master plan followed the signing of a grant agreement in February 2019, with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) worth US$23M (approximately Shs 81.167Bn towards the improvement of traffic flow in the city.
Kyukyu explained that the procurement process for the Civil Works contractor by JICA is in final stages, while the relocation of utilities at the different project sites is over 90% completion and civil works are expected to commence in 2022.
“This will involve removal of roundabouts, improvements to the geometric layouts, junction improvements, reconfiguration and signalization of 30 junctions across the City and construction of Kampala Traffic Control Center at City Hall that will installed with traffic control systems and provide a platform to improve the capacity and performance of city junctions,” said Kyukyu.
David Lagen (Agago County) wondered if there are other plans to construct other flyovers to deal with traffic from other metropolitan areas, instead of the Kampala Flyover to deal with traffic jam from Entebbe.
The Manager Strategy also said that the money is part of the Shs7Trn the Authority needs in implementing its Master Plan.
The other project in the master plan is the preparation of the Kampala Street Lightning master plan, aimed at expanding the street lighting coverage of the City from the current 8% to 100%.
According to the Authority, the ambiguous project is premised on the need to improve security and safety of the citizens as well as visitors at night and improve the working of the national CCTV project. The project is at cabinet level and is expected to be presented before Parliament.
During the meeting, KCCA lamented about the shortage of funding for wages of the political leaders, with the slots having increased from 258 to 467 after creation of new political positions, but the increment wasn’t matched with budgetary allocations after the January 2021 general elections.
KCCA highlighted that in FY 2021/22 the composition of City Political leadership increased from 258 to 467. This resulted into an increase for their remuneration and an underfunding of Shs10.22Bn in the current financial year.
In 2020/21 the Authority’s approved budget was Shs552.7Bn but received Shs453.7Bn and of this, KCCA spent Shs381.4Bn.
The Authority also decried the skyrocketing litigation costs due to legal cases against the institution, with the latest figures rising to Shs70Bn.
The Ministry in Charge of KCCA also complained about the shortage of funding, saying there isn’t money to even purchase furniture for their offices.
But this issue was rubbished by Derrick Nyeko (Makindye East) who argued that all the work done by the Ministry can be carried out by KCCA technical team and there is no need to spend money on duplication of duties.
