• Kinoti said urban roads are the nerve centre and catalyst for development which should be highly appreciated by the Treasury.
• He said Kura is also implementing the Intelligent Transport System (ITS).
Image: CHARLENE MALWA
The Kenya Urban Roads Authority has appealed to Treasury to increase funding for roads.
According to Kura Director general Silas Kinoti, urban roads are the nerve centre and catalyst for development which should be highly appreciated by the Treasury.
He noted that the Authority is in all devolved units, yet their budget allocation is still the same.
“Our budget is not proportional to the work we do. It’s currently strained. We have a maintenance budget of Sh6 billion and a development budget of Sh10 billion. We need more and even if it's doubled or tripled, it won’t be more,” Kinoti explained on Saturday.
Kinoti added that the agency is also in charge of all roads in major urban centres in Kenya like Naivasha, Nyahururu, Malindi and Ukunda, among others.
He said Kura is also implementing the Intelligent Transport System (ITS).
The DG said the ITS system is financed and supported by the Korean Exim bank, where the foreign bank has pledged a total of Sh21 billion to support urban mobility.
An Intelligence Traffic system is a system which information and communication technologies are applied in managing road transport and infrastructure; in terms of how roads are used.
This will replace the traffic police who control and attempt to manage traffic on the roads.
The ITS comprises of three components, Advanced Traffic Management System, Advanced Travel Management System and Advanced Traffic Information System.
In November 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed Kura to build a Traffic Management Centre at City Cabanas to ease congestion on key Nairobi roads.
He also said they redesign and signalise 25 new intersections and set up 100 new road junctions.
“The control centre will utilise traffic cameras and censors and harmonise location data to provide a synchronised signal at 100 new junctions in addition to the existing traffic lights,” Uhuru said.
Kinoti revealed that on February 15, 2021 Kura signed a Sh16 billion contract with South Korea Export-Import Bank to implement the construction of the Traffic Management Centre and connect 102 junctions.
Phase I will cost Sh6 billion for the construction of TMC and connecting 25 junctions while in Phase II, Kura will connect an extra 77 junctions.
Kinoti said the agency is also automating traffic signals in 102 junctions across the country and making them intelligent.
The ITS was first rolled out in Seven junctions along Ring road as a pilot project financed by Kura after engineers went to Japan to benchmark how it is used.
The Authority is also working on the Bus Rapit Transport line five which runs from GSU along Thika road to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through Outering road.