East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA - A master plan that is expected to revamp Kampala City has been developed and it's ready for implementation by the end of 2012.
A master plan is a blue print for the future. It's a comprehensive document that is intended to guide development in a city or township for the next 10 or so years to come.
According to Mr. George Agaba, the Kampala Capital City Authority director physical planning, the master plan includes demarcating and widening bus terminals, zero tolerance to illegal development of buildings, beautification and ensuring a clean city, construction of flyovers for highway travelers as well as mapping and surveying the construction of new markets within the city.
The plan also tackles total reconstruction and widening of roads, gazzettement of road reserves, street lighting, Kampala youth employment, garbage collection, street children and beggars, restricting congestion of traffic and human, removing or finding alternative parking space for cars off the streets and implementation of a clear transport system.
The master plan will handle poor drainage that leads to flooding through widening of all drainage channels, littering of the environment through programmes like "Kampala City Yange" where massive city cleaning days would be scheduled as wells as other city problems that were neglected by the former regime.
"Kampala physical master plan will be ready by the end of next year. It tries to ensure zoning of the city. It demarcates commercial, residential and industrial areas within the city," said Agaba during a press conference in Kampala.
The development of the Kampala master plan has followed that of Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kigali, where the three EAC partner states developed their development master plans a few years back.
Kampala Capital City Authority executive director Ms. Jennifer Musisi also addressed the press conference to review the six months she has been in charge of Kampala.
She said, for the six months she has been in charge, KCCA has registered a 75% reduction in fuel expenditure amounting to over Ush150million per week.
"Between April and May 2011, Ush200million was spent on fuel per week. Most of this was abused or sold off by staff.
"Two engineers were arrested and charged in connection with this. Essential controls and processes to address this problem have been put in place," noted Musisi.
The authority embarked on a project to replace street-lights, of which 2180 solar vapour lights have been acquired to replace the existing and inefficient wind powered lamps, and replacing bulbs and fittings on wooden electric poles.
To ensure a clean city, the authority also instituted a ban on all illegal and unauthorized posters and banners erected in the city.
Musisi stressed that waste collection and disposal efforts have improved by 37.5% since April 2011, of which 27,498 tonnes of waste is collected by the authority compared to 20,000 tonnes in April 2011.