Donors pledge Shs968b for power lines

An East Africa Community –GIZ official takes a picture of Bujagali Dam after completion. Donors have support for the construction of power transmission lines among other projects. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

The African Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have both committed Shs350.5 billion towards the construction of the Bujagali interconnection lines, a switch yard and interconnection of the electric grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes Countries Project (NELSAP)

Kampala.

Six donor agencies have approved Shs968.4 billion to support the construction of power transmission lines, substations, conduct feasibility studies and corporate governance in Uganda.

Officials at the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) told the Daily Monitor work on some projects had already started.

The African Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have both committed Shs350.5 billion towards the construction of the Bujagali interconnection lines, a switch yard and interconnection of the electric grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes Countries Project (NELSAP).

The NELSAP transmission projects include the Bujagali-Tororo-Lessos and Mbarara-Mirama 220kiloVolts (Kv) transmission lines to provide a regional grid interconnection for power trade and improvement in steady power supply.

UETCL head of public relations Kenneth Otim confirmed the development and said engineers are already on ground at some major projects.
“The engineering contractors are already on the ground digging tower foundations with some tower constructions,” Mr Otim said, “We hope most of the projects will be completed on time.”

He added that the African Development Bank has also committed Shs199.4 billion to construct both the Mbarara-Nkenda and Tororo-Lira 132Kv power transmission line projects as well as to improve reliability, availability and quality of power supply to several western and eastern districts.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian government has committed Shs142.2 billion towards the construction of the Nkenda-Hoima 132kV transmission line; conduct feasibility studies for Kafu-Hoima, Mirama-Kikagati-Nsongezi lines, and twinning arrangement for Statnett-SF, a transmission company of Norway with Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited to improve corporate governance.