Hon. Katumba Wamala along with the Minister of State Works Joy kabatsi on Friday visited the SGS vehicle Inspection Center in Namanve. The two were accompanied by the Director of Transport, Benon kajuna, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Tony Kavuma, the Secretary National Road Safety Council, Ronald Amanyire and key Ministry Staff.
This visit followed Cabinet’s approval of the mandatory and periodic motor vehicle inspection services. Cabinet was in the view that this would improve road safety by ensuring a sound fleet of vehicles on the road. It would also contribute to direct employment opportunities, sustainable environmental protection and also ease the monitoring of the vehicles in the country.
In March 2015, Ministry of Works and Transport awarded SGS a contract to carry out vehicle inspections countrywide on its behalf. The vehicle inspection exercise is carried out under “Safe Drive Uganda” – a road safety measure intended to ensure vehicle roadworthiness and reduce carnage on Ugandan roads.
This mandatory and periodic exercise is aimed at improving road safety by ensuring that motor vehicles are roadworthy and that drivers use safe and well-maintained vehicles. Environmental conservation is an additional goal to prevent vehicle emissions; one of the main sources of air pollution in Uganda.
The Namanve Station is the seventh of seven-fixed vehicle inspection test stations around the country. The first vehicle inspection station in Kawanda started operations on November 28, 2016, the second fixed inspection station in Nabbingo on Masaka road was inaugurated on 3rd May 2017, the third inspection station in Namulanda on Entebbe Road was opened on 31st May 2017, the fourth inspection station in Mbale was opened in September 2017, the fifth inspection station was opened in Mbarara in January 2018 and the sixth inspection station was opened in Gulu in March 2018. Since the mandatory exercise began, nearly 37,000 cars have been inspected at the seven stations.
In addition, mobile units will cover several upcountry locations with sparse vehicle populations to reduce the distance vehicle owners have to travel to the nearest inspection station.
SGS conducts almost 44 million vehicle inspections worldwide for both emissions and roadworthiness.