Hoima-Tonya road to be ready by July

Transport minister Abraham Byandala (2nd L) and Members of Parliament listen to one of the Kolin Construction engineers during an appraisal tour of the Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road last week. Photo BY STEPHEN OTAGE

What you need to know:

Project, started in October 2011, was meant to last three years.

HOIMA-Government has been assured that the Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road, the first major road project in the oil region to support the oil production process, will be complete and ready for hand-over in July.

According to EMr Abraham Byandala, the Transport minister, the Shs360 billion-road is a unique project and the first major road project being implemented with full financing from government of Uganda to enable oil production in the country.

Opening the region
“This road is important to us in two aspects; it is opening the Albertine region for production of oil. Secondly, it is fully funded by government of Uganda and it is going to stimulate economic activity in this region,” Mr Byandala told journalists last week.
He added that with the quality of the works, the road is expected to have a minimum lifespan of 20 years like the rest of the national roads. The Uganda National Roads Authority is this year enforcing the axle load control for trucks to safeguard investment on roads to prolong their life span, the minister said.

Mr Tunay Bozbeyoglu, the engineering manager of the project, told Members of Parliament (MPs) that his company—Kolin Construction, is working towards early completion of the project so that it is handed over to the government within the coming three months.

“We felt it better to invite you to inspect this work before handing over the project so that if there are any concerns, you raise them now so that we can correct the mistakes and also ensure that we do not repeat them in the subsequent projects,” he told the MPs.

According to Mr Peter Lokeris, the State Minister for Mineral Resources, the new road is an arterial road where all projects in the oil region will converge.

“All the industries supporting oil development will be using this road for transportation. They need heavy equipment which needs to be transported by road. We shall also be getting some equipment through the lake (Lake Albert). We have identified more roads to be opened, but this was the biggest road,” he said, adding that Ugandans can now take advantage of the investment to start businesses to tap into the oil industry.