THE Zambian government has given Austria based Kapsch TrafficCom a 17-year nationwide concession contract for the design, installation and operation of systems and solutions for traffic surveillance, vehicle speed enforcement, vehicle inspection and vehicle registration.

This project, according to a statement issued by Kapsch today, will be run as a joint venture with Zambia’s Lamise Trading Limited.

“This scope of service will be realized step by step during a ramp-up phase as a part of a 17-year contract,”

stated the company in a statement posted on its website and confirmed by investor relations officer Hans Lang in an interview with The Mast.

“The number of vehicles on Zambia’s roads increased by 280 per cent to 700,000 in the ten years to 2016 and road fatalities increased from 10 per hundred thousand inhabitants to 13.8 per hundred thousand in the same period. In 2016 alone, 2,206 people died in traffic related accidents. Therefore, it is the aim of the Zambian Government, through its agency the Road Traffic and Safety Agency to significantly increase road safety and traffic management.”

Expected revenues in the first three years of operation are in the region of 90 million euro to 110 million euro for the project that was effected immediately after the signing of the agreement with the Zambian government officials.

Kapsch TrafficCom chief operating officer André Laux said the company, together with its partners Lamise Trading, felt honored to be entrusted with a task to improve traffic safety in Zambia.

Under the project, Kapsch TrafficCom is in a 50:50 joint venture with Lamise Trading, a Zambian company based in Lusaka.

“By installing and operating Kapsch TrafficCom’s leading edge equipment and systems, the joint venture will create some five hundred jobs, provide a boost to the economy in Zambia through improved road transport, and reduce the number of traffic accidents and their impact,” said Lamise Trading chairman Walid El Nahas.

Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles.