Leading Nairobi Gubernatorial candidate Richard Ngatia has promised to revamp city planning and solve the chronic traffic congestion problems that have plagued the city over the years.
Ngatia has said that his plan for Nairobi is to deal, once and for all, with the city traffic decongestion and create an efficient public transport system to finally solve the Nairobi traffic jam menace.
“My plans for Nairobi: Traffic Decongestion and Efficient Public Transport. We will work on this,” Ngatia said on his official twitter handle.
“The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) president said that it is through revamped city planning that the city will be able to finally overcome the traffic congestion problem which estimates from the Kenya National Highway Authority ( Kenha) has indicated that Nairobi loses up to Sh50 million daily to traffic jams.
“Partnerships with various stakeholders and multi- organizational corporations will help us to streamline the sector,” Ngatia said.
The widely travelled business mogul, who is also the chairman of the Great Lakes Region Private Sector Forum- which brings together 12 countries in the Lake Victoria basin has been rooting for the introduction of the tram transit system to end Nairobi traffic congestion. The tramways on which tram cars operate are powered by electricity.
According to Ngatia, Nairobi traffic snarl ups can easily be solved if there was a revamp of the city planning to accommodate the small trams around the city.
Ngatia is on record saying that the solution to traffic congestion was not in banning Matatus from the city centre but in developing the city centre and other areas outside the CDB to encourage business outside the central business district of the city.
From the attempted ban of matatus from the Central Business District (CBD) to the construction of new bus termini outside the city centre, the heavy traffic menace has remained a thorny issue to date.
A tram is a rail line operated by electricity-powered tramcars on tramways in public urban streets.
The tramcars are designed to travel shorter distances in urban streets, and they share the road with other vehicles.
Currently, the Government is implementing the long-awaited Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) in an effort to decongest the city.
The pilot phase which will run from Kenol through Thika–Ruiru-Nairobi CBD-Langata Road-Bomas to Rongai is set to start in July this year.
