Kenya plans to fit 25 major roundabouts in Nairobi with a smart traffic control system in an effort to reduce Police from city roads.
Work on the Nairobi Intelligent Transport System (ITS) is being funded through the Sh8.4 billion loan Kenya received from the Export-Import Bank of Korea and will start once a contractor is identified for the project.
The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), the body responsible for the implementation of the project has already floated a tender and interested bidders must submit their applications by August 29, 2023.
“The Nairobi Intelligence Transport System is a key project in our effort to improve traffic flow and make Nairobi a more liveable city,” said Kura director-general Silas Kinoti on Tuesday.
“The system will include traffic lights, cameras and sensors, which will be used to monitor traffic flow and optimise traffic signals.”
Kura says that work on the project, which will see the installation of intelligent traffic management systems in 25 critical junctions in Nairobi will be completed in June 2026.
The winner of the tender will construct and equip the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) building at the former Cabanas facility.
The firm will also be expected to install intelligent field equipment including a traffic signal, signal controller, intersection surveillance cameras and vehicle enforcement system and communication network as well as transfer skills.
Some of the junctions identified for the upgrade in the project include Moi Avenue/Kenyatta Avenue, Koinange/Kenyatta Avenue, Mbagathi Way/Lang’ata Road and Limuru Road/Muthaiga Road among others.
The system will use cameras at road junctions to capture oncoming traffic through digital number plates embedded with microchips and feed the information into an Integrated Traffic Management Centre (TMC) in real time.
