UTC-Lira receives Shs5b road construction equipment
Some of the new vehicles and earth-moving equipment at Uganda Technical College Lira. PHOTO/PATRICK EBONG
What you need to know:
- The contract for transforming UTC- Lira is being undertaken by Ambitious Construction Company.
The Uganda Technical College (UTC)-Lira has received road construction equipment and motor vehicles worth Sh5 billion from the government.
The brand new equipment ,which were delivered to the school last week include, an excavator, grader, wheel loader, digital road surveying equipment, a bus, a van and a pick-up truck, among others.
The equipment were procured by the Ministry of Education and Sports under Uganda Skills Development Project (USDP) funded by the World Bank.
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This comes at the time government is preparing to upgrade the institution to a centre of excellence for road construction and maintenance in the country.
Mr Jacob Akunobere, the principal of UTC-Lira, said other equipment yet to be delivered includes an 18-tonne tipper truck, water bowser and bitumen machine.
“Last year, when I was posted to UTC Lira and was just one-month old in office, officials from the World Bank wanted to terminate the contract for upgrading the institution into a centre of excellence for road construction and maintenance because the contractor had delayed in commencing the work,” he said.
Mr Akunobere said he pleaded with the World Bank officials and the contract was extended for another eight months.
“But the eight months expired before the construction would begin because the procurement process took a little longer. We had to rewrite to the Ministry of Education, the ministry pledged to talk with the World Bank and the project was extended to December 2022,” he explained.
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He added that the equipment will benefit the entire Lango Sub-region.
Mr Herbert Apita, the Lira City councillor, said the equipment will aid road construction and infrastructural development in Lango.
He added that the government is investing so much in vocational skill training through technical education institutions because “this is now the best way to go”. “Everybody is yearning for a job and now the jobs are here, I want to encourage the students to use this opportunity to learn how to use some of these equipment and then use them in the right way,” Mr Apita said.
The Lira District Chairman, Mr Richard Cox Okello Orik, said during their school days they used to despise technical education thinking it was meant for academic failures.
“Those who were doing woodwork, we were calling them woodpeckers. But today, what I found here, you are the greatest people I admire in this world,” Mr Okello Orik said.
The contract for transforming UTC- Lira is being undertaken by Ambitious Construction Company.
The firm has already completed the construction of the laboratory, classroom and administration blocks, among others.
