Key infrastructure projects planned to ease congestion
The move to phase out the 14-seater vehicles from routes within the Nairobi Central Business District is targeted at curbing congestion that continues to haunt millions of commuters each day.
The government has stopped registering the 14-seater vans for use in public transport. As a result, the matatu owners, through saccos, are acquiring high occupancy vehicles that are currently being registered as passenger service vehicles (PSVs).
Mr Joseph Thuo, the chairperson of the Traffic Licensing Board (TLB) says the phase-out of 14-seater vans is just one of the measures to reduce traffic jams in major towns.
“We are also looking at developing our railway transport as one of the key component in eliminating the snarl-up that has been common in Nairobi,” he says.
TLB is working on a plan that would see the high occupancy vehicles operate with a schedule on different times at the bus termini to avoid congestion.
“We are urging the saccos to join up and acquire mini buses to help curb congestion in the city,” said Mr Thuo.
As part of efforts to decongest the city, the government has planned to build major roads including one that runs from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to Rironi.
The JKIA-Rironi road is expected to supplement another planned project known as the Nairobi Metropolitan Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) which will entail the construction of a 167 kilometre exclusive public road and rail transport grid that would link the city centre with key neighbouring towns and municipalities such as Kikuyu, Thika, Ruiru, Athi River, Kitengela, Machakos, Limuru and Kajiado.
According to proposals, the project would be implemented along nine road corridors namely; Nairobi Railway Station (NRS)-Ruiru-Thika, NRS-Juja Road-Kangundo, NRS-Jomo Kenyatta Airport-Athi River, NRS-Langata Road-Karen and NRS-Upper Hill-Ngong. Other corridors to be covered by the project will include NRS-Kabete-Kikuyu, NRS-Gigiri- Limuru and Outer Ring Roads in city’s Eastland’s area.
The present Nairobi Railway Station area, including the yards, has been proposed for the construction of a 24-storey central hub terminal for the MRTS in that all lines would originate or terminate at this point or traverse through it.
The blueprint showed the road network would be serviced by an exclusive closed rapid bus system complete with special feeder services. The special bus routes would run alongside the normal highways except within the Central Business District (CBD) where it would be elevated.
On the part of rail transport, the entire network is proposed to be on an elevated platform with a total of 76 stations and five maintenance depots to service passenger needs.
Phase one of the MRTS project would cover the corridors along Thika Road I, Juja Road, Jogoo Road, Ngong Road 1, Limuru Road and Mombasa Road comprising 50.18km of elevated rail lines and 40.42 kilometres (kms) of road.
In the second phase work would be carried out on Outer Ring Road, Thika II, Waiyaki Way, Ngong Road II, Thika Road III and Langata Road. The rail and road network in this phase would total 35.04km and 41.44km respectively.
The consultants said the project may require some highways covered by the special project to be upgraded to between four and eight lane dual carriage with exclusive lanes for the rapid transport bus system.
Transport ministry data shows that major roads within Nairobi such as Thika Road, Outering Road, Uhuru Highway, Haile Selassie Road, Mbagathi Way, Langata Road and Waiyaki Way are used on average by 80,000 vehicles every day—which is way beyond their design capacity.
The Nairobi City commuter train currently carries about 19,000 passengers everyday which also way below the estimated demand of 90,000 passengers.
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