Government has further pushed the issuance of electronic number plates, Eagle Online has learnt. The revelation was made by the Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala.
In July 2021, the government signed a 10-year contract with the Russian firm Joint Stock Company Global Security to implement the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) project.
The proposal was first introduced by President Museveni in his 10-point security measure in the wake of gun violence in the country that saw several Ugandans killed by criminals moving by motor vehicles and motorcycles.
The ITMS project includes the provision of digital vehicle trackers for motor vehicles and motorcycles in a bid to curb insecurity. The project would be implemented in a phased manner.
The roll-out of the project was scheduled for March 1, 2024, but it was postponed to July 1, 2023, due to logistical challenges.
Towards the rollout date of the project on July 1, 2023, the business community led by KACITA petitioned Parliament to halt the exercise, citing a lack of public sensitization and readiness of the public, and also proposed that the exercise begin with the fitment of registration plates on government vehicles.
That led to an extension to November 1, 2023, starting with the fitment of new registration plates to government vehicles; however, the process has been pushed to November 1, 2024, when the government will start issuing registration plates to new motorcycles, and on January 6, 2025, the full roll-out of all categories of vehicles and motorcycles.
By June 26, 2024, a total of 1091 vehicles from various ministries had been fitted with the new registration plates, falling short of the required numbers due to persistent logistical challenges that are slowly being resolved.
Currently at the facility are 107,014 registration plates, along with 3,662 and 17,679 beacons, with more components expected in the country in the next few weeks.
As plans for the establishment of a factory materialize, the service provider, as guided by the government, has set up a facility at Kawempe for local production of registration plates, installed four hot stamping machines and four embossment machines, and will soon receive blank plates and hot stamping materials with security features.
The motor vehicle registration system on ITMS, which includes the booking system, the verification system, and the stock control system, is substantially complete.
