14 Aug 2019

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, is in the process of implementing two traffic congestion interventions in the Greater Gaborone area.

Speaking at the Greater Gaborone Traffic Signaling and Centre for Traffic Control Projects ground breaking ceremony at Gaborone City Fire Brigade  recently, Minister  Dorcas Makgato said the two interventions were Traffic Signals Modernisation and Provision of Centralized Traffic Control.

Ms Makgato said the interventions were necessitated by unbearable levels of traffic congestion in Gaborone and its environs which covered traffic signals in the Mogoditshane and Tlokweng sub-districts as well as parts of the Kgatleng District.

“The project is under a Design, Build, Maintain, Operate and Transfer type contract worth P348 million and is expected to run for 90 months. The detailed design is nearing completion and the project is entering the construction and installation phase,” she said.

She further said it formed part of the P4 billion  Botswana Integrated Transport Project.

“The BITP programme also includes the piloting of output and performance-based road contracts in Southern District and the implementation of transport infrastructure improvements in Greater Gaborone,” she said.

The minister stated that the programme would enhance transport efficiency in Botswana through improvement of  planning and application of modern  development and management methods.

“To this end, my ministry has completed a number of transport studies which include the Greater Gaborone multi-modal transport study and is currently preparing the National Multi-modal Transport

Master Plan and the Greater Gaborone Transport Master Plan,” said Ms Makgato.

She said the project included replacement of traffic signals equipment, installation of a centralised traffic control system, construction of a building to house the system and installation of closed circuit television surveillance cameras at strategically selected intersections for 24-hour visual monitoring.

In addition, it would provide traffic enforcement cameras for red light and speed violations and Automatic Video Incident Detection cameras.

Ms Makgato said as construction and installation of equipment commenced, there would be unavoidable disruptions to traffic flow and therefore appealed to the public to accord their usual cooperation and follow temporary signage that would be deployed on the roads.

Contractor, Mr Victor Pareja said the traffic management centre, traffic controllers and the rest of the equipment was the platform from which Gaborone would be able to bring technological benefits to the public. ENDS