Govt seeks additional Shs90b for Nile Bridge

JINJA.

The State minister for Works, Gen Katumba Wamala, has said an additional $25m (about Shs90b) is needed for the completion of the new Nile Bridge in Jinja.
While touring the construction works together with MPs on the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy chaired by Ms Syda Bbumba last week, Gen Katumba said the money government received from Japan is not enough to facilitate the completion of the remaining work.
“We are asking for money because when the project kicked off, government was supposed to contribute some money towards the project; but when we reached a certain level, government failed to get the money; so we went back to the Japanese Government to add us some more money,” Gen Katumba said, adding that once government gets more money, Ugandans will be able to use the bridge by September 2018 because the project is 90 per cent complete.
Ms Bbumba said their main aim of touring the bridge is to monitor the progress of the works and to see whether the remaining work is worth the money being requested for.
She asked the contractors to speed up the completion of the new bridge to save people’s lives because the old bridge (Nalubaale Owen Falls Bridge), which is about 64 years old, is weakening.
Zenitaka Corporation of Japan and Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company from South Korea are constructing the New Jinja Nile Bridge.
The total cost of the new bridge was budgeted at $125m (about Shs390b), with the Government of Japan financing up to 80 per cent of the cost in form of a loan, while Uganda was supposed to fund the remaining 20 per cent.