A heavy truck joining Jinja Road from Press Road in Kampala yesterday

By Madinah Tebajjukira

THE Works and Transport minister, John Nasasira, has ordered heavy truck drivers to use the northern by-pass to reduce congestion in Kampala city.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee on physical infrastructure yesterday, Nasasira said although the ministry banned heavy vehicles from using city roads, most trucks have defied the ban.

The minister added that from this week, heavy trucks found using city roads would be impounded.

“The northern by-pass was purposely constructed to ease traffic jam in the city centre. Since it was opened, heavy trucks are not supposed to use city roads. I am going to ask the Police to launch an operation against them starting this week,” he said.

Besides the Police operation, Nasasira told the committee that some truck drivers would be subjected to heavy fines.

He also revealed that he was in negotiations with food suppliers to ensure that they off-loaded foodstuff at night to avoid disrupting traffic flow in the city centre.

The minister and officials from the works ministry had appeared before the committee to give a breakdown of the sh1 trillion allocated to the ministry in the 2009/2010 financial year.

The MPs asked Nasasira to provide a more detailed report on the ministry’s performance, which he promised to submit soon.