Car numbers triple on Zambian roads

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 10:51:16 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

THE vehicle population in Zambia has more than tripled from 183,701 registered vehicles to 696,474 as at fourth quarter of 2016.

Transport and Communications acting permanent secretary Yesse Bwalya attributed the increase to the improved standard of living and positive economic growth that the country has experienced in the recent past.

He was speaking at the opening of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) as an option for reducing traffic congestion seminar in Lusaka yesterday.

ITS is a technology applied to transport and infrastructure to transfer infor-mation between systems for improved safety, productivity and environmental performance.

This includes stand-alone applications such as traffic management systems, in-formation and warning systems installed in individual vehicles, as well as coop-erative ITS (C-ITS) applications involving vehicle to infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

Mr. Bwalya says the increase in vehicle population had facilitated mobility and further economic activity.

“Technology has continued to reinvent the transportation sector by providing in-terventions that enable the efficient management of transport infrastructure,’’ he said.

And speaking at the same event, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) resident representative Hisanao Noda was hopeful that Japanese private compa-nies would be able to work with Government particularly in ITS as they had high expertise in this sector.

Mr. Noda said it was important to understand that ITS as an isolated option could not be the solution for addressing all transport bottlenecks, hence the need to consider it in the comprehensive planning of city and transport development.