UNRA has started receiving bids from private operators who are able to provide towing services and clearing all highways of abandoned vehicles.
In a bid notice by the Executive Director, UNRA says government intends to engage private operators to provide towing and storage services for vehicles that are broken down and abandoned along the roads across the country under a Memorandum of Understanding for a period of three years which is renewable.
“The objective of the assignment is to remove broken down and abandoned vehicles from the road expeditiously in order to enhance safety along our roads. The service shall be provided at a cost to the vehicle owners and therefore the private operators will recover fees for their services from the vehicle owners,” the bid notice by UNRA reads in part.
According to the notice, the services will include patrolling of the roads to identify broken down and abandoned vehicles and therefore, the fees to be charged from the motorists will also include a component to finance the patrolling cost.
The towing services will be provided in different regions including the central, north, south, eastern and western.
“The Government of Uganda represented by Uganda National Roads Authority now invites eligible private operators to submit their applications expressing their interest in providing these services. Interested providers should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications to perform the services.”
Requirements
UNRA says the shortlisting criteria will include the firm’s legal status, the organisational setup, organizational structure showing key departments to perform the required services, capacity equipment, staffing, management and financing among others.
The roads body will also look at the firm’s capacity to provide services in one or more regions, the schedule of proposed costs of towing the vehicles per kilometre taking into account the varying capacity of towing the equipment to be used and the schedule of proposed costs of keeping custody of the towed vehicles per day taking into account the different sizes of vehicles.
“We will also look at the availability or confirmation of availability of secure facilities where the vehicles shall be kept after towing them before the owners claim them, the suitability of the proposed method of recovering costs from the vehicle owners.”
UNRA however warns against any form of canvassing or lobbying for the services which will lead to disqualification.
The development comes on the backdrop of a directive by the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among to government to enforce towing of vehicles abandoned on the roads after a series of accidents which have resulted into death of a number of people.
Recently, prominent businessman, Apollo Nyegamehe, also known as Aponye died in an accident when a vehicle he was travelling in rammed into a stationary truck.