The government of Uganda on Friday signed an agreement with the Japanese government for a US$ 20 million (about UGX 70bn) grant for the improvement and rehabilitation of the main roads, drainage and traffic safety facilities in Gulu Municipality, a statement from the Media Centre said.
The fund will be utilized to pave 6.373 km of Gulu Municipal roads including management of utilities along the streets.
At the signing of the agreement on Friday last week in Kampala, Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development said the fund will contribute to smooth and safe traffic flow in Gulu Municipality.
Minster Kasaija additionally said the grant will also improve on the living environment for Gulu municipality residents through better drainage and traffic safety facilities.
Kasaija added that improved roads will improve Gulu’s position as the business hub for northern Uganda and its strategic location as the centre for trade between Uganda and South Sudan.
The Japanese Ambassador to Uganda, Junzo Fujita pledged that his government will fulfill its obligations under the agreement and will also ensure that the grant is utilized for the purpose for which it’s meant.
Kasaija, according to the government statement said, Uganda will furnish the Japanese government with information and data concerning the progress of the implementation of the projects.
Currently, under a 5-year multi-billion shillings project funded by World Bank, five roads, totaling 3.637 kilometers within Gulu Municipality have been worked on.
The World Bank initiative is designed to enhance the institutional performance of selected Local Governments through expanding urban infrastructure and enhancing their capacity to generate revenues, improve urban planning, and strengthen financial management.
A recent assessment in on utilization of funds under the Uganda support to Municipality Infrastructural development (USMID) funded ranked Gulu number one out of the 14 municipalities implementing the program.
The others are Arua, Lira, Soroti, Moroto, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja, Entebbe, Masaka, Mbarara, Kabale, Fort Portal and Hoima.
Following the excellent performance, Gulu municipality will get an additional 7.5 billion Shillings to be added onto the construction cost for the next phase of the project which is estimated to cost 23 billion Shillings.
The new contract under the World Bank(WB) project will now cover ten new roads. They include; Crane Avenue, Kabalega Road, Adonga Road, Philip Tarner, Odur min Odyek, Commercial Road, School Road, Salvatore Road, Opwonya Walter and Muloni Road.
Gulu Town Clerk Francis Barabanawe says the construction is expected to take a maximum of one year.
The road under the WB project is being undertaken by a Chinese company, Chongqing International Construction Corporation –CICCO after signing a contract worth 23 billion shillings in March this year.
The grant from the Japanese is meant to improve on the drainage and traffic safety facilities on the roads.
2 Comments
Am grateful for the work being done but ,the funds shud be put in good use instead of doing shoddy work,making the roads smaller than the expected especially the stretch from st Monica to custom corner we dnt know what happened,plse do away with corrupt official in this project.
Martin, u have put Gulu in the map, so plse keep our repetition
Tom
From Gulu
Am grateful but when shall we stop being beggers and develop our own country.