The Ministry of Works and Transport has launched the third phase of digital number plates targeting private vehicles.
The third phase of implementation of the Intelligence Transport Monitoring System project was launched on Monday at Malaba border point targeting vehicles and motorcycles entering Uganda for the first time.
This border point and the one at Mutukula will pilot the issuance of private motor vehicles entering the country through Mombasa and Dar es Salaam .
“From today, all the newly imported vehicles and motorcycles will be issued with digital number plates before they enter the country,” the ministry spokesperson, Susan Kataike said.
She explained the digital plates for vehicles will cost shs714300 and installed by Russian company, M/S Joint Stock Company Global Security.
Owners of vehicles and motorcycles already having the old number plates will pay shs150,000 and shs50,000 respectively to get the digital plates.
“For one to get a digital number plate, they must present their national ID to show ownership of the vehicle. Therefore, a digital number plate will be issued in the names of the owner of the vehicle which are on the national ID,” Kataike said.
She said those driving vehicles not in their own names ought to change ownership before acquiring digital number plates.
Officials said since the launch of the project in 2022, at least 11,143 motorcycles and 2,721 government vehicles have been fitted with digital number plates and a functioning monitoring system.
Kataike said there will be a two year grace period for private vehicles to acquire digital number plates after which it will be mandatory for every vehicles to have them.
Recently, the Works and Transport Minister said the digital number plates and the entire Intelligent Transport Monitoring System will become the magic bullet for dealing with criminality, noting that on purchase of the number plates Ugandans will also have got free tracking system fitted in their vehicles that in case of theft, they can easily be tracked.
“It will discourage reckless driving through constant monitoring through CCTV cameras and point to point communication by police officers. The system is also intended to instill discipline among motorists on the road but will also save the traffic police officers the burden of jumping on boda bodas to chase wrong doors but will rather communicate to colleagues and the wrongdoers are got.”
“The system will help us trace criminals who use vehicles or motorcycles to flee from crime scenes.”
He said that owing to the system, all details of Ugandans with vehicles will be stored in a central place and this will also aid in tax collection, adding that it will create employment to those who will man the system and those who will work in the number plate factory at Bugoloobi.
Following the assassination of high profile figures in the country including AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Joan Kagezi, Col.Ibrahim Abiriga, Muhammad Kirumira and Maj.Muhammad Kiggundu, President Museveni in 2018 laid out a 10-point strategy that would help deal with this rising spate of violent crimes in the country.
“We shall require every motorist and motorcyclist to have electronic number plates with an electronic signal in them – to be incurred at the cost of every owner. This will enable us to know which vehicle or piki piki (motorcycle) was in a particular area when a crime was committed,”Museveni said during the State of the Nation address in 2018.
“We need new helmets with illuminated numbers at the front and at the back. These helmets will be registered and put in the central processing systems of Police.”
According to the project, every vehicle and motorcycle will be required to get a digital number plate that is fitted with a chip that in case of any crime, it is easy for security to go the system to trace the vehicle at that particular point during the commission of the crime.
The president said this would be easy to implement with the installation of CCTV cameras by checking footage .
