Businesses operating in Ntinda Industrial Area in Kampala are demanding for better roads to boost their operations.
Pankaj Patel, a member of the Ntinda Industrial Association, says despite being a heavy source of revenue for Kampala City Council, the industrial area has not benefited from road maintenance and repair. He says KCC has failed to install traffic lights along the roads, making the factories vulnerable to robbers.
Patel questions why KCC has failed to use the money collected in property rates and rent in the industrial area on repairing the roads. He says several factories spend more than 20 million shillings every month to repair the trucks whose breakdown is exacerbated by the bad roads.
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The main road leading to the industrial area that leads off Jinja Road at the Spear Motors junction is filled with widening potholes. Roads inside the industrial area are also unpaved and full of potholes.
Pankaj Patel says meetings aimed at lobbying KCC to repair the roads have proved futile. He says the businesses recently offered to contribute half the money needed to repair the roads, but the proposal was ignored.
Kampala City Mayor, Nasser Ntege Ssebagala, says KCC needs more than one billion shillings to repair the roads. He admits that the money to repair the roads in Ntinda Industrial Area has never been budgeted for.
