In the next 12 days, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) will announce the company that will undertake a feasibility study for cable car transport in the city.
Following continued traffic jams and congestion in the city, KCCA is looking for a ‘suitable answer’ for public transport users which is cable car transport according to a statement on their website.
The company will emerge from a two-month bidding process for the tender that was advertised in April by the city authority.
Peter Kaujju, the head of Corporate and Public Affairs at KCCA, says the list of bidders cannot be made public at this stage but when the procurement is complete, the list will be public and the company that has been successful will be declared.
Cable car transport has been suggested in other African cities like Lagos in Nigeria to ease traffic flow and lessen congestion.
Asked on how much it would cost the city authority for the feasibility study, Kaujju said it is not possible to estimate before the bids are complete.
As part of the feasibility study, companies will be expected to map out transport routes and stations for cable cars and how effective they can be as a mode of transport.
Cable cars have a passenger capacity of 60 people and run on electric energy. They are famously used in mountain ranges but have recently been used as a form of city transport.
Kaujju says officials from KCCA have visited cities with cable car transport to ‘understand’ how the mode of transport works.
Cabinet earlier approved a 175-million-dollar-loan from the World Bank for the expansion and tarmacking of roads and also modifying city transport. The loan, it is understood, covered the cable car transport system.