Entebbe Road to be cleared of illegal structures

Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) will from Monday morning start clearing illegal structures and markets located on their reserves along national roads, beginning with Kampala-Entebbe road.

“UNRA will commence enforcement action to reorganize road reserves. Exercise kicks off tomorrow starting with road side vendors at Kibuye,” a source at UNRA confirmed Sunday night. (see full action plan bottom)

The clean-up exercise to protect the national road asset that has started on Kampala-Entebbe road, will later cover Kampala-Jinja road, Kampala-Masaka road, Kampala-Mityana road, Kampala-Hoima road and Kampala-Bombo road, UNRA said in a recent press statement signed by Executive Director Allen Kagina.

The statement said then that UNRA has, through inspection, established that many individuals have encroached on the national road reserves, an act that contravenes the law.

“In some instances the encroachment has been extended to the walkways, road shoulders and the road carriageway itself thereby posing danger to roads users especially, pedestrians. This act also hinders the smooth flow of traffic hence creating the traffic congestion as we now see on many roads radiating from the city centre,” the statement said.

The statement added that “In order to protect the National Road asset, UNRA will in accordance with Section 5 of the Roads Act, Cap 358 of the Laws of Uganda shortly commence eviction of all illegal markets and other unauthorized activities taking place within the road reserves along National Roads.”

This will be in addition to the demolition of all unauthorized structures found in the road reserves. We anticipate that this exercise will help decongest the roads and hence reduce the heavy traffic pains that the users of roads have encountered.”

UNRA urged all individuals who have structures or unauthorized activities of any form in the road reserves anywhere along the national roads to vacate before demolitions and forceful evictions commence.

“We anticipate that this exercise will reduce congestion on our roads, reduce travel time and ensure safety of all road users,” the statement said.

Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) is among other things entrusted with the responsibility of managing the national road infrastructure which includes the road itself, the road signs and the road reserves.

“Clearing encroachers from road reserves is long overdue. We need to take action for safety and also to relieve the government from future expenditure in terms of compensation to encroachers when we want to expand the roads,” the UNRA statement said.

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