Hoima gets Shs7b for development
To be developed. An aerial view of some structures along Wright Road in Hoima Town. PHOTO BY FRANCIS MUGERWA
What you need to know:
- Use. The money will, among others, be used for infrastructural development and beautification of Hoima Boma Grounds.
- In the first phase of the project, the initial design included expanding the existing roads which meant encroaching on and destroying some buildings, especially on Hoima Main Street. Landlords resisted the project and demanded compensation prior to the demolition of their respective structures.
Hoima. Hoima Municipal Council has received Shs7 billion under the second phase of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructural Development Project (USMID).
Hoima is one of the 14 municipalities in Uganda that benefited from USMID, which is funded by the World Bank and the government.
According to the municipality mayor, Ms Grace Mugasa, the money will, among others, be used for infrastructural development and beautification of Hoima Boma Grounds to accommodate a pavilion and a leisure park.
“The municipality plans to use the money to tarmac Wright, Kwebiiha, Republic, Bujumbura and Bunyoro Kitara roads,” Ms Mugasa told Daily Monitor at the weekend.
She said the municipality will also develop a drainage master plant, a garbage and waste management plant, construct another lagoon, carry out stone pitching on all roads in the town and set up an abattoir in Mparo Division.
Hoima municipal authorities are currently conducting a detailed planning of the town where Kahoora Division has been gazzeted as a commercial area while Mparo Division has been gazzeted for residential settlements and institutions.
Busiisi Division has been zoned for agriculture and health while Bujumbura has been zoned for industrial and housing projects.
In the first phase of the USMID programme, Plinth Technical Services Ltd, won a contract worth Shs10.4 billion to tarmac 2.73 kilometres in Hoima Town.
The roads that have been tarmacked include Kabalega, Government, and Coronation, Persy and Old Tooro roads. The contractor was among others required to work on drainage and street lighting.
The Hoima Municipal deputy town clerk, Mr Daniel Kaseregenyi, said much as civil works in the first phase of the programme stand at 87 per cent, the extensions given to the contractor require works to have been finalised by the end of this month.
However, Plinth Technical Services director Ben Misaga claims he suffered losses when construction work was delayed amid engineering reviews of the project.
The first phase
In the first phase of the project, the initial design included expanding the existing roads which meant encroaching on and destroying some buildings, especially on Hoima Main Street. Landlords resisted the project and demanded compensation prior to the demolition of their respective structures.
Because the project did not cater for compensation of the affected properties, the project support team at the lands Ministry and World Bank officials reached a consensus to review the project design to avoid destroying properties during road construction works.
Hoima municipality will get a total of Shs18 billion in the second phase of the programme.
