The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has procured traffic lights signal equipment worth K648 million for Kitwe City Council (KCC).
RTSA Director, Freddie Mwalusaka, said in Kitwe today during the handover ceremony of the equipment to KCC that the procurement of the traffic lights is an initiative meant to address the increased flow of traffic in the city and minimize road traffic accidents.
Mr Mwalusaka observed that there is an increase in the number of vehicles on the road in Kitwe which does not correspond to the infrastructure, adding that the situation has resulted in over burdening of scarce road resources.
He said their were 307,000 motor vehicles in the country by December last year compared to 183, 000 in 2006.
Speaking earlier, RTSA Chairperson, Winston Mwandila, said the motorization rate and road traffic accidents being experienced in urban towns have become a major concern.
Mr Mwandila said according to the road safety assessment carried out by RTSA last year in Kitwe, the traffic light signals are too inadequate to manage the growing motor traffic in the city.
He said it was this desperate situation which compelled the agency to source the traffic signal equipment.
Mr Mwandila said there is need that appropriate traffic management schemes are employed to ensure the smooth flow of traffic in cities where human and vehicle population are growing at a faster rate than the road infrastructure.
Mr Mwandila also appealed to road users and the general public to ensure that the road signals were safeguarded and protected so that they could be utilized over their full design life.
Receiving the equipment, Kitwe Mayor, Stephen Chipungu, said the installation of the traffic signal lights will compliment the road rehabilitation exercise to be done by the Japanese International Development Agency (JICA).
ZANIS
It is embarassing that a ceremony is held to have the traffic lights installed. That is the normal work of the council and it should have been done bells ago. The personal levy and some fuel taxes are meant to cover for this but the funds are donated. In fact JIDA would have been more appropriate to do the ceremony. Again we are reacting to a problem instead of being proactive. Over 10 years ago it was clear that the traffic flow was increasing but no measures were put in place to handle that. By now more roads should have been constructed. Traffic lights will provide a short term solution but more roads will provide a long term and better solution. Guess how much was spent on this ceremony??
Kitwe City Council with its big mining industry cannot take care of the roads. They wait for a “federal” agency (RTSA) to do their job.
They have not engaged existing Kitwe engineering businesses to manufacture the signal lights(or part of) and keep the money in the town.
Last time I checked, Copperbelt University(located right in Kitwe) manufactured their own signal lights from a student project and installed on campus….but no, KCC’s lack of visionary leaders had to sit back and wait for a silver spoon in their mouthes.
Shameful!!!!
I really don’t know but the last time i was in Kitwe there were still no lights to speak off and that was end of August. And K648m worth of traffic light equipment should be clearly visible in a small town like kitwe. I mean for crying out loud there are 5 junctions that have lights on them, some more needed at probably 3 or 4 more stops that should not cost any where near that amount. Meanwhile the Government can also use the university scholars to design systems as part of their educational project requirements that can be made locally and maintained.