Private vehicle motorists can now have a sigh of relief after the scheduled pilot phase for Car-Free days that was to kick off this Friday got suspended by Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.
The suspension comes a day to the D-Day as it had earlier been planned for February 1st, 2018.
According to the CS, the move to postpone the event came in after consultation with stakeholders in the industry to allow for vetting and registration of hawkers who are to take over the spaces meant for parking on the said days.
“The capture of the Biometric data of the traders using BVR kits has not been completed as anticipated. This as an essential security measure that has to be finalized. Consequently, the trial run has been deferred until further notice,” said CS Macharia.
The Government had planned to use the car-free days as part of preparations to start the roll-out of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
Transport Principal Secretary Paul Maringa had on Monday said the car-free days will allow hawkers to sell their wares in the Central Business District (CBD).
Wednesdays and Saturdays had been designated as car-free days in Nairobi when vehicles will be barred from the CBD.
On the designated days, private car owners would have been required to keep their vehicles at bay and instead use public service vehicles in a historic piloting phase that is geared at de-congesting the CBD.
Organized car free days are held in various cities across the world and Rwanda was the first country in East Africa to launch the program in 2016 which has since worked effectively on every Sunday of each month.
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