The Uganda government plans to build a new 54-kilometre public highway connecting Kampala and Entebbe. Photo/FILE
The Uganda government plans to build a new 54-kilometre public highway connecting Kampala and Entebbe in July, at almost $6 million per kilometre making it the most expensive road in Uganda and the world.
Mr Dan Alinange, the spokesman for Uganda National Roads Authority, said they estimate the four-lane highway, to be funded using a loan from Export/Import (Exim) Bank of China, will cost about $300 million (Sh714 billion).
The government however has opted to borrow up to $350 million (Sh833 billion) from the Chinese “just in case”, he said on Thursday.
The road will be built by a Chinese firm which will not go through a bidding process because government waives the requirement for international bidding while choosing contractors for projects solely funded by Beijing.
This was the case with the ongoing installation of the National Data Transmission Backbone and E-Government Infrastructure at the cost of $127.9 (Shs304 billion) to bolster Internet connectivity.
Mr Alinange said the planned “modern road” will run from Entebbe through Abayita Ababiri, Sisa (behind Akright housing estates) and Busega, enabling motorists to access the city using the northern bypass.
A section of the proposed road will linkSsisa to Kajjansi (on the existing highway) where a major fly-over inter-section will be built to connect to Munyonyo through Lweza.
The approved blueprint shows that the stretch of the old 39-kilometre highway, which provides international gateway to Uganda, will be re-worked and expanded from Abayita Ababiri trading centre up to Entebbe International Airport.
With $350 million borrowed for the project’, it would mean a kilometre of the road roughly costs $6.5 million or Sh15.5 billion to build, more than triple the $2 million presently required to upgrade a kilometre of gravel road to four-lane bitumen standard.
The 54-kilometre road, which officials say will have six lanes in some areas, will eclipse the cost of the previously most expensive road, the 21-kilometre northern bypass, which cost Sh130 billion up from an earlier estimate of Sh87 billion.
Mr Alinange said part of the cash will be used to buy land and compensate affected people for property that will be destroyed.
“This is not going to be just a ‘normal’ road,” he said, “This is a road which is going to come with all sorts of amenities, lighting and beautification.”
Such official account shows it would cost twice as much ($4 million or Sh9.5b) to compensate claimants than build a kilometre of the new road as it emerged that individuals in the know are dashing to acquire property where the road is proposed to pass, so they can pocket hefty sums in compensation.
Prof. Jackson Mwakali, a civil engineer, “the economic costs/value and technical feasibility” matter most.
“The feasibility study should show the project makes economic and technical sense,” he said.
Motorists aiming to avoid the characteristic traffic gridlock on the old stretch will have to pay each time they drive on the proposed road, which will be a toll road.
Ministry of Works technocrats say they plan to attach computer chips to every vehicle number plate so it automatically records each time a car comes in contact with the new road and the owners shall be billed every month.
Mr Alinange, responding to our question if billing of motorists would not amount to double taxation, said: “Whoever does not pay the toll, and I don’t think it will be double taxation, will have to use the old highway.”
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