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Ngong road set to receive a major facelift

The road which is being constructed in three phases will see it upgraded to have a four lane dual carriage way

Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 15 – The Kenya urban roads authority (KURA) has announced an ambitious plan that will see the face of Ngong road completely changed.

Silas Kinoti, the Acting Director-General of Kura says the ambitious plan seeks to decongest the Central Business District (CBD), reduce travel time, improve road safety, stimulate socio economic development and reduce air pollution from slow moving vehicles.

“Ngong road reconstruction is unique,” Kinoti says. “Besides having one of the highest concentration of vehicular traffic in the country, a factor that has admittedly delayed on going works, it also connects a populous and growing catchment area to the city,” he added.

The road which is being constructed in three phases will see it upgraded to have a four lane dual carriage way, three intersections, provision for Non-motorized transport in the form of walkways and cycle tracks on both sides; a box culvert; drainage and bus bays.

“The construction of the first phase of Ngong road (Kenya National Library to Ring Road Kilimani) which is nearing completion will be a major milestone in efforts to renew and modernize the urban road network,” he said.

“The second phase is financed through grant aid from Japan through Jica. It covers 3.3 kilometres linking prestige plaza to Dagoretti corner – Karen roundabout, Karen road section and the Langata road section,” he said.

The three phase project is partly financed by the Japanese Government through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a grant aid from Japan through JICA and the government of Kenya.

The ambitious plan whose urban component is currently being implemented by KURA is in partnership with other government agencies like the Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHa) and Kenya rural roads authority (Kerra).

However, Kinoti says the success of the road network in the city will depend on the investments made by the County government.

“The Nairobi city county government would greatly help the national and the city socio-economic development cause by doing its bit, ensuring that the small roads under its jurisdiction, the ones that feed into major arteries like Ngong road, are in a good, serviceable state,” he noted.

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In April, Nairobi was ranked the second-worst city in the world on traffic congestion according to the Serbia-based website numbeo.com trailing Kolkata, India in the 2017 Traffic Index.

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