2018: A year of major infrastructural projects

As Uganda pursues a great leap in infrastructural development, the year 2018 has proved fruitful in the construction industry with mega projects completed and commissioned. The preceding years saw Uganda embark on a mission of developing the country through infrastructure with more loans borrowed from development partners.
From highway roads, electricity generation dams, long bridges, industries to mega structures in Kampala city; the pursuit for better infrastructure in Uganda continues to rise in regard to meeting the demands of industries, trade and welfare of the people.
Below are some of the major projects completed in 2018 with more in the pipeline such as the Karuma and Isimba hydro power projects, oil roads in Bunyoro and other major roads.

Sukulu Phosphates Project
The Shs2.2 trillion project sits on a 600-acre piece of land in Sukulu village, Tororo District. Its construction started in 2014 by Guangzhou Dongsung Company.
It is East Africa’s largest phosphate fertilizer plant expected to produce 300,000 tonnes annually as demand grows across East Africa. This will help reduce the high level of importing fertilizers. The plant will also produce steel.
Commissioned by President Museveni in October this year, the plant intends to employ more than 1,500 personnel.

The New Nile Bridge
The architectural marvel across Victoria Nile is a gigantic concrete and steel structure expected to last 120 years. Its construction began in 2014 by Zenitaka Corporation of Japan and Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company from South Korea. Its cost was valued at US $125 million (about Shs411.1b) with 80 per cent of the funding acquired as a soft loan from the government of Japan.
The new bridge is cable stayed with 72 harp-like white cables connecting the bridge deck to two 69-metre-tall Inverted-Y pylon toners. More than 202 Light Emitting Diodes (LED) bulbs at the base of the cables illuminate the 72 stay cables. It has a four lane dual highway with pedestrian walks.
The bridge is 525-metre-long making it the fifth longest in Africa behind Egypt’s Suez Canal (3,900), Nigeria’s Lekki Ikoyi bridge (1,360m), Morocco’s Mohammed VI bridge (950m), and Tanzania’s Kijamboni (680m)
Whereas it was meant to replace the decaying Owen falls Dam Bridge built in 1954, its main purpose is connecting Uganda to the Northern corridor to neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo as well as to port Mombasa for trade purposes.
According to Unra Director of roads and bridges, Engineer Samuel Muhoozi, the bridge will enhance tourism given its iconic signature and picturesque location.

Janani Luwum Church House
The new 16-floor shiny commercial office building has added beauty on Kampala road alongside a string of other buildings. The idea of constructing Church House dates back to 1965 as a commercial real estate enterprise that was to be built on Shimoni road. However, in 1972, the plot was exchanged for Plot 34 on Kampala road in a swap deal with Bank of Uganda.
The Church of Uganda (COU) kickstarted a fundraising drive for its construction which went to the grass roots of the church, including primary and secondary school students making contributions. In 2010, the trustees of the COU entered into a loan agreement with Equity bank to fund the project. The COU agreed to raise 30 percent of the construction cost and the bank financed the balance through a $10 million and 5 billion shillings’ loan. The contract was awarded to Cementers Uganda Ltd, a local firm.
However, this year, towards its completion, media reports started to circulate that the property was at a risk of being auctioned by the bank in a bid to recover the money it invested in the project. Archbishop Ntagali dismissed these reports as total lies. President Museveni who had read the reports said he would not allow business people to take over the building.

Mulago Maternal and Neonatal Hospital
The state of the art women’s health facility at Mulago Hospital is a nine-storey building sitting on 24,000 square metres of land. Commissioned by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda in September, its construction began in 2013 by Arab Contractors Limited financed by a 34 million dollars’ loan from Islamic Development Bank.
The hospital is a 450-bed facility with 11 operating rooms, 40 beds for intensive care units, 170 beds for high risk delivery section, 80 beds for oncology department, 50 beds for nursery section, 25 beds for recovery section. Others include emergency departments, laboratories, a blood bank, morgue, radiology, examination and physiotherapy departments.
These will help to handle and offer services such as high risk antenatal care, delivery, postnatal and gynaecology, surgical, ureteric re-implantation, in-vitro fertilisation, recurrent pregnancy as well as complex fistula surgeries.
However, according to Health minister Ruth Aceng, the hospital will only handle referred cases from other hospitals.
Meanwhile patients will be expected to pay for the services at the facility, and this will be according to different categories depending on preference. For example, consultation fee is Shs50,000.

The Kampala-Entebbe Expressway
The 51 kilometre four lane highway (2 lanes dual carriage way) from Kampala to Entebbe was commissioned in June by Wang Yang, Chairperson of the Chinese Peoples’ Consultative Conference alongside President Yoweri Museveni.
It is one of the major and expensive government projects that has been under construction for the last four years since 2012. The road was constructed by the China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) at a cost of US $476 million (approximately Shs1.19 trillion); an amount partly acquired as a loan from the EXIM Bank of China with a repayment period of forty years at two per cent interest. The rest of the funding was provided by the Uganda government. However, the project costs were a centre of criticism from some sections of Ugandans over what they termed as inflated prices compared to other countries undertaking such projects.
According to Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), its main purpose is to provide an efficient transportation route between the central business district and Entebbe International Airport.
Another reason is to reduce congestion and increase commercial viability of Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area as well as improving mobility, reduce travel times, vehicle operating costs and accident rates.
However, motorists will pay to access some sections of the road. According Unra, the road comprises of two sections; the first section has 37.23 kilometres of road from Busega to the airport, of which 27 kilometres is limited access expressway with toll plazas at Busega, Kajjansi, and Mpala. It is at the toll plazas where motorists will have to pay to access the road. Section 2 has 14.13 kilometres of the road from Kajjansi, Munyonyo to Lweza.

Others
Apart from Sukulu, a number of other industrial projects were also commissioned this year such as the Simba Cement Factory in Tororo District; Hoima Sugar factory in Hoima District; Good will Ceramics producing tiles in Kapeeka, Liao Shen Industrial Park, Luweero District. In Namanve Industrial Park, President Museveni commissioned six factories including Orion Transformers and Electrics Limited producing electric equipment like transformers; Toyota Uganda Limited; AHasama Uganda Limited, Interior Technologies Limited, Steel and Tube Industries; as well as Luuka Plastics and Packaging Limited.
These will provide revenue to the government, provide employment and the much needed foreign exchange through exports and reduce on imports.