KAMPALA: The Ministry of Works and Transport wants to set up a separate unit to run the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System in Kampala. This is to meet the requirements of the World Bank, which may fund the project.
Ivan Mwondha, a senior transport expert at the World Bank, said in August that the World Bank required the government to set up a special authority or unit with the power to plan and implement the BRT system in Kampala and the metropolitan area through a statutory instrument.
The government didn’t like the situation, and in 2019 the cabinet passed a resolution to cut down on the number of agencies and authorities.
Speaking to Uganda Radio Network, Eng. Rogers Kisambira, who heads planning for the BRT system at the Ministry of Works, says the Ministry is in the process of forming a special unit to plan and implement the BRT system.
He says the unit shall consist of civil engineers, transport engineers, transport planners, transport economists, and IT specialists, among other technical human resources. People think that the team will work semi-independently to cut down on the red tape in government agencies, which could slow down the implementation of the urban transportation system.
Kisambira says the Ministry will continue talks with the World Bank to persuade them to accept the unit rather than an independent authority. He says that the Ministry prefers concessional loans from development partners like the World Bank because they have low interest rates and longer payment terms of up to 30 years. On the other hand, private lenders offer loans with high interest rates and short payment terms of only 15 years.
The World Bank agreed to fund preparatory work for the BRT project in the amount of $10 million USD. In December 2021, the World Bank procured M/S Integrated Transport Planning, a consulting firm, to carry out a strategic review of the BRT Project. Plans to pay for the preparation work, on the other hand, have run into trouble because the new system needs an independent authority or a dedicated unit.
The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system is part of the National Transport Master Plan of Uganda and is intended to run from 2009 to 2023. In 2010, the World Bank funded a feasibility study which informed the choice of nine corridors totaling 88km on which the BRT would operate. The corridors would start from Kampala and stretch to Bwaise and Kanyana stretching 10km, Kireka 9.4km, Zana 8km, Kawempe 9.2 km, Nateete 8.4km, Nabweru 8.4km, Kira 13.8km, Portbell 10.6km, and 10.4km along Gaba road.
The study, however, identified three routes for a pilot; Kampala-Bwaise, Kampala-Kireka, and Kampala-Zana. In 2014, the Ministry of Works concluded designs for the implementation of the BRT on the pilot corridors with funding from the World Bank. The plans included 3.5- to 5-meter-wide bus lanes in the middle of the road, traffic lights at all key intersections, bus stations with side-aligned platforms, and bike parking spots, among other things.
The designs further provided that both lanes and stations would fit within the available space, with low-floor, 18-meter-long buses with a capacity of 150 passengers. The plans also said that bus drivers had to use electronic ticketing systems to collect fares on the bus.
The pilot BRT was estimated to cost $490,000, with $389,4 million going to building infrastructure, $66 million to buy buses (which would be paid for by the private sector), and $35 million to do things like buy land, raise awareness, make the tax industry official, and so on. The project was supposed to start in 2018, but it didn’t because there wasn’t enough money.
Kisambira now says that as the Ministry moves to form a special unit for the BRT system in Kampala and the metropolitan, the initial designs will be reviewed to address the current events. He claims that a lot has changed since 2018, from land ownership to developments on land where the project required extra land and infrastructure, among other things.
He says the Works ministry, together with the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Planning, is working with development partners to fund a study to inform the design reviews. So far, he says, the French Development Bank has expressed willingness to fund the study, which is expected to last only eight months.
But as the ministry plans for a rapid bus transport system, there are already operators running bus services within the city. The most prominent ones are Tondeka and Kalita, which operate mainly in the central division and Nakawa, on the northern bypass route, respectively. Kisambira says these operators are aware of government plans for a BRT and hopes that when the infrastructure is put in place, they will follow the guidelines set for operating buses in Kampala.
Eng. Joel Wasswa, the Transport and Traffic manager at Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA, says that the bus system is key in de-congesting the city by providing mass transport. He says that as the Ministry plans to implement a comprehensive BRT system, the services offered by bus companies in Kampala contribute to the ultimate goal of offering mass transport to de-congest the city. Eng. Wasswa reminded taxi drivers that the government wants them to be interested in the bus systems and offer mass transportation.
Dr. Amin Kiggundu, a lecturer in Urban Physical Planning at Makerere University, says that the city needs to explore ways of investing in high capacity transport systems because they not only carry more people but are cheaper on a large scale. “In mass transport, operators pay less per passenger kilometer,” says Dr. Kiggundu, giving an example of a Boda Boda, which ferries one passenger, having to invest more than a bus operator carrying over 60 people for the same distance in Kampala.
He, however, adds, being that Kampala is poorly planned and less developed, there is a need to invest in stage buses. Dr. Kiggundu urged the government to offer incentives to bus operators to enable them to operate more effectively. He says that constructing roads like the Entebbe Expressway will not solve the transport congestion in Kampala. To him, the mass transit system is the way to go for Kampala.
According to KCCA, an estimated three million people commute to Kampala for work on a daily basis, while close to two million reside there.