Israelis take Bugiri-Malaba-Busia deal
Jul 07, 2010
UGANDA National Roads Authority (UNRA) has awarded the 82.5km Malaba-Busia-Bugiri road works to SBI International Holdings. <br>The route is part of the Northern Corridor that runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala and the Great Lakes region.
By Aidah Nanyonjo
UGANDA National Roads Authority (UNRA) has awarded the 82.5km Malaba-Busia-Bugiri road works to SBI International Holdings.
The route is part of the Northern Corridor that runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala and the Great Lakes region.
It is Uganda’s major strategic link to the sea.
In April last year, UNRA advertised for the works, attracting seven bidders who competed for the design and construction works for the rehabilitation of road.
However, five companies were technically dropped, leaving SBI International Holdings and Sogea-Satom JV CES to tussle it out in the financial comparison stage.
Dan Alinange, the UNRA publicist, explained that SBI International emerged as the lowest bidder with sh121b, while Sogea Satom quoted sh254b.
Alinange disclosed that UNRA was awaiting clearance from the Solicitor General for the project to take-off.
“When we receive it (clearance), work is expected to begin in September,†he said.
The contractor is expected to work on the pavement conditions surveys and engineering investigations, environmental assessment and road safety audit.
He is also supposed to design appropriate rehabilitation and/or strengthening interventions and construction works based on the agreed design.
For the last eight years, SBI has worked on several important roads across the country.
These include the Nebbi-Arua, Karuma, Olwiyo, Kagamba, Rukungiri, Kasese-Kikorongo-Equator, Hima Kasese- Kikongoro and Jinja-Bugiri highway projects.
The company is also making good progress on the sh151b Kabale-Kisoro road on which more than 50% of the works had been covered.
Road construction is still one of s Uganda’s biggest financial challenges.
However, with the low cost road construction technology adopted from the developed world recently demonstrated in Uganda, may solve the problem.
The technology will soon be put in practice as one of the several other interventions geared towards saving taxpayers money spent on the current expensive modes of road construction.
N.S. Tandem Engineering, and UgiCom Enterprises, constituting local engineers and their foreign counterparts, have engaged landlocked specialists; Natural Paving Solutions Technology to make it applicable across the country.
Maj. Gen. Pecos Kutesa, the managing director of Tandem, explained during a demonstration in Nyanama, off Entebbe road in Lubaga Division this week that the technology had already been applied in several countries including some on the African continent.
He disclosed that the technology had been found relatively cheaper.
Kutesa said the technology is eco-friendly without any environment impact.
“We are soon joining the bidding process for road construction under this technology, which will reduce government expenditure by over 30%.
“We have already engaged Ugandans abroad to automatically boost our operations,†disclosed Kutesa.
Peter Ssematimba, the Rubaga chairman, recommended the technology, saying, it will reduce government expenditure on road works.
Meanwhile, rising oil supplies will mostly offset higher demand over the next five years, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday in its latest medium-term oil and gas market report.
“For the next few years, the oil market is marked by more comfortable spare capacity than envisaged last year and the duration of the current gas glut is set to last beyond 2013, at least in some regions.
Yet, we shouldn’t be complacent,†the Paris-based IEA said. Potential delays to new deepwater oil projects following the accident at BP’s oil rig and the oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico may tighten supplies, said the agency, the advisor to 28 industrialised countries. Road reserve encroachment is UNRA’s biggest challenge.
The situation is worse on the newly-opened roads.
This is because the locals will put up temporary structures to win compensation.
Experts blame the vice on public ignorance.
In some instances compensation has been politicised.
In February, UNRA demolished kiosks built on the newly-opened Northern Bypass road reserve.
Alinange explained that encroachment on the reserves is illegal and would hinder future planned expansion of the roads.
However, the vice usually continues as soon the UNRA operations are completed.
A team made up of the Police and the roads agency employees, spent over 10 hours on the operation.
“These are businesspeople encroaching on Government land.
“If they are left to continue, they might even claim ownership in addition to hindering the steady flow of traffic on the road,†he said.
There are also a number of permanent structures in the Bypass reserve for which the roads agency is to contract court bailiffs to demolish, according to Alinange. He promised that the exercise would be carried out frequently to ensure compliance.
UGANDA National Roads Authority (UNRA) has awarded the 82.5km Malaba-Busia-Bugiri road works to SBI International Holdings.
The route is part of the Northern Corridor that runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Kampala and the Great Lakes region.
It is Uganda’s major strategic link to the sea.
In April last year, UNRA advertised for the works, attracting seven bidders who competed for the design and construction works for the rehabilitation of road.
However, five companies were technically dropped, leaving SBI International Holdings and Sogea-Satom JV CES to tussle it out in the financial comparison stage.
Dan Alinange, the UNRA publicist, explained that SBI International emerged as the lowest bidder with sh121b, while Sogea Satom quoted sh254b.
Alinange disclosed that UNRA was awaiting clearance from the Solicitor General for the project to take-off.
“When we receive it (clearance), work is expected to begin in September,†he said.
The contractor is expected to work on the pavement conditions surveys and engineering investigations, environmental assessment and road safety audit.
He is also supposed to design appropriate rehabilitation and/or strengthening interventions and construction works based on the agreed design.
For the last eight years, SBI has worked on several important roads across the country.
These include the Nebbi-Arua, Karuma, Olwiyo, Kagamba, Rukungiri, Kasese-Kikorongo-Equator, Hima Kasese- Kikongoro and Jinja-Bugiri highway projects.
The company is also making good progress on the sh151b Kabale-Kisoro road on which more than 50% of the works had been covered.
Road construction is still one of s Uganda’s biggest financial challenges.
However, with the low cost road construction technology adopted from the developed world recently demonstrated in Uganda, may solve the problem.
The technology will soon be put in practice as one of the several other interventions geared towards saving taxpayers money spent on the current expensive modes of road construction.
N.S. Tandem Engineering, and UgiCom Enterprises, constituting local engineers and their foreign counterparts, have engaged landlocked specialists; Natural Paving Solutions Technology to make it applicable across the country.
Maj. Gen. Pecos Kutesa, the managing director of Tandem, explained during a demonstration in Nyanama, off Entebbe road in Lubaga Division this week that the technology had already been applied in several countries including some on the African continent.
He disclosed that the technology had been found relatively cheaper.
Kutesa said the technology is eco-friendly without any environment impact.
“We are soon joining the bidding process for road construction under this technology, which will reduce government expenditure by over 30%.
“We have already engaged Ugandans abroad to automatically boost our operations,†disclosed Kutesa.
Peter Ssematimba, the Rubaga chairman, recommended the technology, saying, it will reduce government expenditure on road works.
Meanwhile, rising oil supplies will mostly offset higher demand over the next five years, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday in its latest medium-term oil and gas market report.
“For the next few years, the oil market is marked by more comfortable spare capacity than envisaged last year and the duration of the current gas glut is set to last beyond 2013, at least in some regions.
Yet, we shouldn’t be complacent,†the Paris-based IEA said. Potential delays to new deepwater oil projects following the accident at BP’s oil rig and the oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico may tighten supplies, said the agency, the advisor to 28 industrialised countries. Road reserve encroachment is UNRA’s biggest challenge.
The situation is worse on the newly-opened roads.
This is because the locals will put up temporary structures to win compensation.
Experts blame the vice on public ignorance.
In some instances compensation has been politicised.
In February, UNRA demolished kiosks built on the newly-opened Northern Bypass road reserve.
Alinange explained that encroachment on the reserves is illegal and would hinder future planned expansion of the roads.
However, the vice usually continues as soon the UNRA operations are completed.
A team made up of the Police and the roads agency employees, spent over 10 hours on the operation.
“These are businesspeople encroaching on Government land.
“If they are left to continue, they might even claim ownership in addition to hindering the steady flow of traffic on the road,†he said.
There are also a number of permanent structures in the Bypass reserve for which the roads agency is to contract court bailiffs to demolish, according to Alinange. He promised that the exercise would be carried out frequently to ensure compliance.