Districts receive sh500bn road equipment

Ugandans who have been crying over the poor state of roads now have a cause to smile.

President Yoweri Museveni's government has purchased a fleet of road equipment worth sh500bn.

Museveni commissioned the over 1000 equipment to be distributed to 121 districts in Uganda.

The function that was attended by district leaders and ministry officials took place on Friday at Spedag Interfreight offices in Bweyogerere, Wakiso District.

The fleet of vehicles in Bweyogerere included bulldozers, graders, tippers, compactors, road roller and low-loaders. 

The Minister of Works, Monica Azuba Ntege said each district will get a unit worth sh2.7bn. Distribution of the equipment starts on Monday.  

Ntgege said the equipment was bought from Japan on a loan concession from the Japanese Bank for International Corporation.

Japanese ambassador to Uganda, Kazuaki Kameda said his country is grateful for the trust President Yoweri Museveni put in his country to accept to buy the equipment from them.

Speaking at the function, President Yoweri Museveni noted that the acquisition of the equipment marked the end of expensive tendering of road maintenance works in districts.

He said it took his government the last 31 years before acquiring reliable road equipment because by the time they took over power in 1986, the economy had collapsed.

 
"Since the economy was down, our first target was recovery and sustaining peace," he said. "We could not implement our ideas and instead we followed others."

The chairperson of Buganda Local Government Association and the chairperson of Mukono District, Andrew Ssenyonga welcomed the purchase of the equipment.

But Ssenyonga asked government to increase the budget for road maintenance in local governments. He observed that with the current resource envelops, the equipment may end up becoming flowers at district headquarters. The Japanese equipment replaces the Chinese units which government bought in 2012 but broke down.   

Azuba said tough guidelines have been issued on the use of equipment and that each district will have to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the government.

Azuba also revealed that unlike in the past where creditors attached district equipment this time around it is not possible because the vehicles belong to government.

She also said each vehicle has got a system to track location and fuel use.

For the first three years, the Japanese company that supplied the equipment including Komatsu will repair them before handing over the task to government.

The distribution of the equipment begins with 35 districts in the central regions that include Buikwe, Wakiso, Kayunga, Kiboga, Masaka and Mpigi. Azumba said the ministry has trained operators of the equipment and promised to pay them well to retain them.