UNRA spends Shs12b on Jinja bridge compensation

The compensation paves way for the construction of a new bridge in April.

Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has spent Shs12 billion on compensating land and property owners near Njeru and Jinja towns to pave way for the construction of a new bridge on River Nile.

UNRA head of corporate affairs Dan Alinange revealed the development to Daily Monitor when asked about the project status since there is a warning against over utilising the current bridge.

“Some parts of industries like Nytil will have to be broken and we have already finished paying them,” he said.

The project, that is expected to consume $120m (about Shs300b), will commence in April and UNRA has received bids from four companies for the work.

The bridge, which will be erected a few metres from the old one, will stand 80m high and 525m long with dual lanes. It will measure 1.1 kilometers of dual carriage and have three junctions.

The construction comes at a time when the old bridge had started wearing out due to the increased traffic from Kenya into Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi.

Completed in 1954, the old bridge has served for close to 60 years but the new one is expected to last 100 years.
Meanwhile, UNRA has revealed plans to complete the second phase of the Northern By-pass and the fly-overs across on all roundabouts to ease traffic jam.

Mr Alinange said a plan to do away with the current roundabouts is to reduce traffic jam in and around the city.

“The Northern Bypass will be fed by the express highway from Entebbe and if we don’t decongest the current traffic on the bypass, [it] will be a waste of time and therefore, we have decided that a person driving from Entebbe will do so without encountering traffic jam until Namboole,” Mr Alinange explained.

rwanambwa@ug.nationmedia.com