Uganda Road Fund to consider Buhweju in hard to reach category
Buhweju District leaders and Uganda Road Fund team after the meeting at the district headquarters on Friday. PHOTO | ZADOCK AMANYISA
What you need to know:
- The committee chairperson Mr Francis Mwijukye, told URF team that their district has rough and rocky terrain that has made it hard for road construction and maintenance yet they receive little money from the government
The Uganda Road Fund (URF), a government body responsible for financing routine and periodic maintenance of public roads has revealed that it will consider Buhweju District in the category of the hard-to-reach areas so that the district can receive more road funding.
The pronouncement was made by Eng. Ronald Namugera, the head of the Policy and Strategy Department at URF while meeting Buhweju District leaders on Friday at the district headquarters.
Engineer Namugera had gone to Buhweju to have an interaction with members of the district roads committee and have an induction of their oversight roles.
The committee chairperson Mr Francis Mwijukye told URF team that their district has rough and rocky terrain that has made it hard for road construction and maintenance yet they receive little money from the government.
The Deputy Resident District Commissioner Mr Godfrey Tumwebaze Goodman said that Buhweju has special peculiar road challenges that need to be addressed in a special way thus calling for affirmative action.
"Our district has rough terrain and this makes road construction and maintenance hard yet we need better roads to transport people and services. There are several challenges peculiar to Buhweju. We need affirmative action so that we can be considered different from others. During the wet season, most of the roads here are blocked by mudslides," he said.
Eng Namugera: "We notice Buhweju is one of the hard-to-reach areas looking at the road network. Its terrain is hilly and has many rocks and I think it should be considered in the hard-to-reach category. Under the road fund, we have an allocation where we give special release to such districts.”
He, however, noted that the district shall be considered in the next financial year (2023-24).
The Buhweju District Engineer, Mr Dicklus Twinamatsiko noted that after being considered in the hard-to-reach category, Buhweju will get special attention and tackle the high cost of road maintenance.
"If you are to maintain roads in Buhweju, you need more than Shs22.5 million for graveling one kilometer whereas grading and shaping require Shs2.6 million. So, considering us for affirmative action will be timely," he said.
Eng Namugera also revealed that the fund will support all districts with road supervision vehicles in the 2023/24 financial year.
This is after the leaders told him that they faced the challenge of lacking road supervision vehicles. They explained that road equipment operators were using graders to go for lunch and couldn't afford the cost of transporting fuel during work.
The Uganda Road Fund has a duty to finance the implementation of the Annual Road Maintenance Programmes that are carried out by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), and the other designated agencies responsible for District, Urban and Community Access Roads.
