Mbarara City Authorities have revealed that soon the analogue mode of street parking payment will be phased out and a new digital system will be introduced where one will have to pay street parking fees electronically.
This follows several complaints from the city business community, passersby and visitors in the city citing unfairness, irregularities and the mismanagement of collecting parking fees within the city that disorganize traffic
According to Tayebwa Rwakinanga, the Principal Revenue Officer for Mbarara City, some people misuse the parking slots along the city streets creating disorganization of traffic flow.
“Of course, we have had long trucks of commercial items that consume space of more than three cars for more than an hour," Tayebwa said.
According to Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, the Mbarara City Mayor, the city has a company that was contracted to collect parking fees and submit Shs9.6m per week to the city council. He adds that they have received complaints from city dwellers of irregularities in the system of work.
“The is a company that collects street parking fees but we have received complaints regarding the unfairness, especially from the visitors of Mbarara who are asked to pay for ten tickets for five thousand yet they have less than an hour in town” Kakyebezi noted.
Angisa Isma, the General Manager of Wood fix Technical Services, the company that was contracted by Mbarara City Council to collect street parking fees says a lot of issues still hinder proper management of street parking for example some road markings have faded and oftentimes cars are parked wrongly, but also people who put commodities on streets after offloading make street parking hard.
Makhansing Street, Mbaguta Street, High Street and Buremba Road are the major streets with stubborn road users where vehicles defy street parking. This according to Rwakinanga will soon be history with the introduction of a digital system.
“The council is engaging stakeholders including the current company handling street parking to have it managed digitally and this will solve the mess and minimize such complaints” Tayebwa revealed to Nile Post.
Kakyebezi expressed confidence in the coming digital system saying that “the city council will be able to monitor which car has parked along which street and for how long and after being receipted they can pay via mobile money and receive a notification on their phone and that automatically enters that car details in the system”
Angisa reaffirms the city mayor’s words adding that there is already a system in place that enables data storage of their clients (all cars that park along streets) and 50% is covered with over 20 machines and their staff are able to send data in real-time.
He adds that “we are planning to have an integrated street parking management system solution where clients will be able to pay the dues and their history of parking along Mbarara streets and their previous bills if any but most importantly enable them to know the prices so that they are not cheated”.
About Shs9.6 million is paid to Mbarara city council per week by the contracted company from street parking and with the coming of the new system this is expected to increase.
Currently, every car that parks on any street in the city centre is issued a receipt and on departure one is asked for a coupon/ticket that one ought to have bought prior at the street parking offices on Makhansing Street. If you have no coupon you pay cash which is risky.
