Uganda to rebuild Lira-Kamdini road
The state of Lira-Kamdini road on January 15. PHOTO/BILL OKETCH
What you need to know:
- President Museveni says Uganda will take over from World Bank.
President Museveni has said Uganda will fund the reconstruction of the Lira-Kamdini road whose delay has prompted protests from locals.
While meeting leaders of Lango Sub-region at Alidi Primary School, Loro Sub-county in Oyam District at the weekend, the President blamed the delay on players involved in the project.
“I decided that this section of the road [measuring] 78kms, I am now going to pull it out of the World Bank project and fund it. We are going to fund it like we did with Kamwenge–Fort Portal road,” he said.
The Lira-Kamdini road is included in the North-Eastern Road Corridor Asset Management Project (NERAMP), as part of the Lot 2 section, Soroti-Lira-Kamdini, financed by the World Bank and the government of Uganda.
The President said he was humiliated by some Members of Parliament (MPs) from Lango Sub-region.
“Yesterday (Friday), I was ‘arrested’ by some MPs from Lango when I was in Kololo launching something on tourism; these MPs invaded me there, and they said you must come to Lango tomorrow (Saturday),” he said, adding that he was surprised that the issues of Lira-Kamdini road had not yet been sorted out.
The President also directed Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) to take pictures of the deteriorating Lira-Kamdini road network and share them with the World Bank.
Mr Museveni believes the pictures of the poor road, which has claimed lives and frustrated business, will make World Bank understand that his administration did not kick it out of the road project in bad faith.
Last week, Unra indicated that the roadworks await clearance safeguards documents from the World Bank.
“Being a World Bank-financed project, compliance to environmental and social safeguard requirements is key. No activity can take place without the World Bank’s clearance of environmental and social safeguards,” Unra indicated in a statement last Friday.
About the project
NERAMP is the country’s first longest road project that has been awarded to a Portuguese firm, Mota-Engil Africa. The 340km stretch covers Tororo-Mbale-Soroti-Dokolo-Lira-Kamdini road.
The overall construction is supposed to last 36 months.
The contract was signed on June 28, 2018 and the project implementation started on August 13, 2018.
The legal site possession was done on February 28, 2019 for Lot 1, and March 1, 2019 for Lot 2.
