Olwiyo-Gulu roadworks one year behind schedule

However, more than a year later, the Shs163.6 billion road expected to be a key transit route for goods and passengers from West Nile Sub-region through Nwoya, Omoro, Gulu and Kitgum to South Sudan is not yet complete.

Progress
Mr Nathan Kamya, the project engineer, told journalists at a press briefing on Thursday that progress of the project stands at 95 per cent.
He said the delays were due to several challenges the contractor met at the onset and middle of the roadworks.
Mr Kamya cited some of the challenges, as difficulty in acquiring land for the project, disputed ownership of unregistered land, expired leases/ land ownership documents and absentee Project Affected Persons (PAPs) during verification exercise.

Mr William Matovu, head of land acquisition at UNRA, said the contractor had challenges acquiring land since the project passed through three districts (Nwoya, Omoro and Gulu) where there are a lot of land disputes.
“The roadworks delayed because the road traverses through three districts and the land tenure is customary land ownership, we faced a lot of hardships with the community members who were already having disputes among themselves,” Mr Matovu said.
He said they succeeded through their close engagements with the community,

Compensation
Mr Matovu said out of the 1,400 project affected persons, government managed to pay Shs10.3 billion to 1,267 people, adding that they are working on paying the remaining balance. Government earmarked Shs13.7 billion for compensating project affected persons.

“Compensation of project affected persons now stands at about 91 per cent, the remaining percentage we are working on paying but also got challenges with some of the people who have been absent, we can’t trace their whereabouts,” he said.
Mr Matovu, however, said they have made adverts on regional and national newspapers notifying the project affected persons of the ongoing compensation.

Unlike Olwiyo-Gulu roadworks, the 87.4km Acholi Bur-Musingo roadworks being undertaken by the Chongqing International Construction Corporation which was commissioned in September 2014 is expected to be completed by end of this year.

Additional time
Mr Kamya said the challenges forced UNRA to negotiate and added more time for the contractor until April 27, 2019 when they expect them to complete and hand over the road to government.
On progress of the road, Mr Kamya said they are currently embarking on installation of road furniture and road markings, saying the progress is steadily going on “well”.

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