Candidates’ promises on roads

Amama Mbabazi

OUR FUTURE
A well-planned and developed road and water transport network capable of accommodating increasing traffic as both the economy and population continue to expand.

OUR PROMISE
Government will undertake a comprehensive infrastructure development master plan to guide the road and transport requirements into the future. Where the population growth forecast or economic activity is expected to grow very fast, larger projects like super highways, underground railway lines and flyovers may be undertaken as guided by our infrastructure master plan.

In order to make proper use of the road infrastructure, we shall seek to balance investment in roads with agriculture and energy such that Ugandans can produce massively, add value to their products and use these roads to transport their output to the market. We must make use of our roads by directly supporting production as organized at the various sub-counties.

We shall pave roads to first areas that produce goods that require access to the market. All road construction will be demand driven. That will make it sustainable to repay loans acquired to construct a significant number of kilometres over the years.
We will develop well-equipped water transport networks on our lakes and rivers.

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

1.In the next five years 2,000km of new roads will be constructed. This will increase tarmac roads from 4,000km to 6,000km. This period will also witness a reconstruction or rehabilitation of sections of national roads and turning specific sections into dual carriages.
2.Some 2,205km of gravel roads will be upgraded to tarmac, 700km of old paved roads will be rehabilitated and 2,500km of paved roads and 10,000km of unpaved roads will be maintained.
3.Strategic roads to support exploitation of minerals, oil and gas, as well as, tourism activities will be considered.
4.Upgrade Entebbe International Airport, which is Uganda’s principal international gateway, to accommodate current and future air traffic and promote service excellence.
5.Develop a new international airport at Kabaale (Hoima) to facilitate the development of the oil refinery.
6.Revive the national airline to facilitate the development of Entebbe International Airport into a hub.
7.Improve and upgrade aviation security at Entebbe International Airport.
8.Revitalise and re-equip the East African Civil Aviation Academy (EACAA) Soroti and develop it into a centre of excellence in aviation training.
9. focus on the upgrade of the country’s railways from the traditional one metre-wide system to a faster and modern 1 and a-half metre wide SGR; and development of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area Light Rail Mass Transit System.
10. initiatives under the water transport sub-sector will mainly focus on construction and rehabilitation of the inland water landing sites and their access roads/rail, procurement of ferry services, improvement of water transport safety through surveys and mapping of inland transport routes as well as institutional reforms.
11. Construction of a new port at Bukasa.
12. New ship to replace MV Kabalega.

13. Improvement of navigation safety and security.

Dr Kizza Besigye

1. A National Pedestrian, Cyclist and Boda Boda Safety Plan developed during the first year and its implementation commenced during the second year of government.
2. A dedicated publicly funded training programme for boda boda cyclists will be designed and implemented to promote safety and encourage certification.
3. Increase the pace of construction of the paved road network to at least 1,000 kms per annum thereby adding atleast 4,000 kms to the current network by 2021. Under our plan, priority focus will not only be given to the economically productive areas or those areas that have demonstrable economic potential, but also those areas lagging behind in development such as Busoga, Karamoja, Bunyoro and many others.
4. Reform the procurement laws to eliminate red tape, increase transparency and accountability, and shorten the period for project approvals to not more than 6 months.

5. Put in place measures to increase the participation of local construction firms in road construction projects up to a value of 30 percent by 2021. Such measures will include: promotion and application of best practice standards on productivity, quality management and, establishment of a special financing facility for the construction sector enterprises to access working capital in terms of credit, bonds, guarantees, and capital for tools and equipment.

6. Partnership with local construction firms will be a standard requirement for all publicly funded public works. This policy is intended to increase the rate of local participation measured by the value of business arising from such partnership.

Make the county fly again
7. The FDC is committed to make our country fly again with Uganda Airlines flying our national flag. We will fast track a plan and design appropriate and cost-efficient financing models to re-establish Uganda Airlines by the end of the 5 years of the transitional government. This plan will be integrated with an overall plan to establish airports in strategic economic regions of the country to ease the movement of people, goods and services.

Prof Baryamureeba

1.Develop a comprehensive national infrastructure (roads, railways, airports and aerodromes, energy, ICT etc) framework policy that shall guide the different sectors when coming up with specific sectoral policies on infrastructure.
2.Develop and maintain a national tarmac roads network linking all towns of Uganda and also linking Uganda to its boarders.
3.Develop and maintain a city road network including flyovers for the major cities of Uganda
4.Develop and maintain a railway network linking Uganda to its neighboring countries to enable efficient and cost effective movement of people and goods
5.Maintain and expand water transport facilities on Ugandan lakes and rivers
6.Revamp Uganda airlines under a public private partnership arrangement
7.Re-develop and expand Entebbe international airport and other airports and aerodromes across the country

Abed Bwanika

1.Upgrade and improve the existing road network and construct new highways to improve accessibility throughout the country.
2.Priority will also be given to proper maintenance of all road networks.
3.We will pursue the restorations of the Railway services, Inland waterways and harbors and re-establish the Uganda Airlines; as means of improving transportation of cargo and people.
4.Development of infrastructure is part of our strategy to lower the cost of transacting business in Uganda and thus increased investment.
5.Classify the entire road network as National (N), Regional (R) District (D) and Sub county roads (SC). This is important in order to streamline the mandate of the various authorities responsible for the supervision and maintenance, easy navigation and the traffic flow.
6.Expand Entebbe Airport into a modern hub within the great lakes region.
7.Establish two new international airports strategically to improve regional business; Arua to serve Southern Sudan and North Eastern Congo and Mutukula for North Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Congo.
8.Upgrade all domestic Airports at Kasese, Gulu, Masaka, Soroti, Kisoro to accommodate private and mid-size commercial jets.
9.Enforce axle-load control to prevent the overloading of trucks and trailers, which do significant damage to roads. Operationalize existing and install new weigh stations.