H.E the President directed on 30th July 2021 that public transport should re-open at strictly 50 percent capacity effective 2nd August 2021. He further directed that taxi and bus owners' associations should ensure adherence by their members to the directive and to SOPs laid out by the Ministry of Works and Transport as part of self-regulations.
The Ministry held a meeting on Thursday 5th August 2021 with the taxi, bus, boda boda and bus park owners’ associations to discuss modalities for implementing the Standard Operating Procedures developed by the Ministry of Works and Transport.
Following presentations by the bus, taxi, and boda boda association numerous issues arose;
The operators requested to be included among the beneficiaries of the stimulus packages since their industry has been greatly affected by the pandemic. In response, the Minister for Kampala would liaise with Hon. Byanyima to engage the Ministry of Trade on the modalities for Operators to obtain support from Government.
It was noted with concern also that outside Kampala, SoPs were not observed. There was need therefore to work with the Ministry of Health to ensure compliance outside the CBD.
The Boda Boda Operators requested the government to ensure all operators are attached to stages to ease monitoring of compliance since boda operators without stages were impossible to monitor.
Regarding the newly refurbished Old Taxi Park, the operators were informed that it would only be opened for operation once all the remaining works were completed. The remaining works included the construction of new toilets, clinic around the area among others.
Government will review the status of these SOPs by the operators of public transport every 14 days, breach of these SOPs will lead to cancellation of the Operator’s licenses or a total closure of the public transport.