Unnecessary delays dog Northern Corridor

The transportation of cargo along the Northern Corridor has drastically improved in the last few months after commitment by countries to ease the movement of goods along this route, according to officials.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The transportation of cargo along the Northern Corridor has drastically improved in the last few months after commitment by countries to ease the movement of goods along this route, according to officials.

Despite the improvement, however, there are still bottlenecks along the route that connect regional countries to the port of Mombasa in Kenya.

Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) officials from member countries Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda DRC and Burundi are in the country to find a solution to such bottlenecks.

  During the opening of the meeting on Sunday, the officials  discussed the fast-tracking of the implementation of decisions to improve the movement of cargo along the Corridor.

"A recent survey conducted by the Authority revealed that 40 per cent of stops by cargo trucks are due to personal reasons,” Donat Bagula Mugangu the NCTTCA executive secretary said in an interview.

The Kigali meeting will present the final report on the current status of the Corridor performance to the Council of Ministers and come up with new guidelines on how to improve efficiency along the Corridor.

 Dr Alex Nzahabwanimana, the State Minister for Transport, observed that there was still a lot to be done in order to improve efficiency along the Corridor.

But he added: "There was a problem of corruption, weighbridges and delays but now things have changed after the commitment of the heads of state.”