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KCCA, TLB disagree over relocation of buses
What you need to know:
- Meanwhile, bus owners and operators who are objected to the relocation have revealed plans to petition the Minister of works, protesting the manner in which the contracts were awarded.
- Mr Kitaka contends that KCCA gazetted Nateete Transport Terminal after obtaining approval from its Physical Planning Committee and that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with them in line with their plans of decongesting the city Centre. The plan envisages creation of satellite transport terminals.
KAMPALA. The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has written to the Transport Licensing Board (TLB), expressing its dissatisfaction over the relocation of buses to gazetted terminals, arguing that buses plying the Western and Southern routes which would have been relocated to Nateete Bus Terminal are instead operating from Kisenyi Bus Terminal.
However, while relocating the buses, Nateete Bus Terminal was not considered, something that has raised questions on which procedures TLB used to relocate buses to the three terminals of Namayiba, Kisenyi and Qualicel.
In a letter dated 28 November 2016 which Daily Monitor has obtained, the Acting KCCA deputy Executive Director, Mr Andrew Kitaka, noted that Nateete Transport Terminal was not included on the list of the terminals yet it is gazetted and has the capacity of accommodating 150 buses and 700 taxis.
The letter is addressed to the Secretary TLB, Mr Winston Katushabe who issued the order of bus relocation on 10 November 2016.
“…the purpose of this letter is to urge you consider including Nateete Transport Terminal as a transport terminal of buses heading to the western and Southern region,” reads in part the letter which is also copied to the minister in charge of Kampala, Ms Beti Olive Kamya.
Mr Kitaka contends that KCCA gazetted Nateete Transport Terminal after obtaining approval from its Physical Planning Committee and that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with them in line with their plans of decongesting the city Centre. The plan envisages creation of satellite transport terminals.
The disagreement comes barely one month after TLB ordered all bus owners and conductors to relocate to gazetted bus terminals. The terminals which won the contract are Namayiba, Kisenyi and Qualicel.
In this arrangement, buses were distributed according to the routes and regions they go to. All buses heading to the Western and Southern Regions are supposed to load and offload from Kisenyi Bus Terminal.
All buses heading to mid-Western, Northern, West Nile and interstate regions are supposed to operate from Namayiba Bus Terminal while buses heading to the Eastern region are supposed to load and offload from Qualicel Bus Terminal. The order took effect last week.
Daily Monitor has also learnt that KCCA is in consultation with other government agencies, TLB inclusive, about the process of organizing and streamlining the public transport industry.
KCCA also intends to sign MoUs with private developers along Jinja and Bombo Road and remove significant number of taxis and long distance buses from the city Centre, giving room for operation of city bus transport services.
Mr Katushabe confirmed the receipt of KCCA’s letter to this newspaper on Monday but noted that the relocation of buses to Nateete Transport Terminal requires consultations with bus owners and operators.
“At the moment, it’s not easy to enforce because it will be very hard to only push for Nateete Transport Terminal yet we have plans of establishing other bus terminals on Bombo and Jinja Road. It’s therefore, a plan which must be comprehensively studied," he said.
Meanwhile, bus owners and operators who are objected to the relocation have revealed plans to petition the Minister of works, protesting the manner in which the contracts were awarded.
They claim that TLB considered Namayiba and Kisenyi bus terminals which are owned by one person, Mr John Bosco Muwonge. To them, this was unfair since there are other terminals in the city gazetted by KCCA.
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