Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is on track to ensure that the construction at Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP), Namanve is on track and completed within the designated 42-month period, its Director-General Robert Mukiza has said.

Mukiza also gave the assurance to the contractors, Lagan-Dott JV that they will have the entire right of way in the KIBP before the end of the year.

Eng. Andrew Bamanya, the chairman of the board of Lagan-Dott JV while making his presentation noted that the encroachment of properties of the road network and utility service and stormwater design by industrialists, was one of the issues previously encountered but indicated that UIA has sufficiently tackled the challenge and that the project will get back on schedule.

Mukiza in an interview with the New Vision said encroachment into road reserves and utility corridors is a reality but and has to be resolved.

Eng. Bamanya explains (R), UK trade envoy to Uganda Lord Dollar Popat (C), the British High Commissioner Kate Airey (L) and UIA Director General Robert Mukiza tour the KIPB Project.

“It’s a UIA concern and we have already contacted the industrialists that have encroached beyond their boundaries into the road. They are not many and they are willing to cooperate. As UIA we have written to them and asked them to give us the corridors we need for the roads and the utilities. We believe in engagement and I believe most of them have already given us that right of way,” Mukiza said.

Mukiza said he believed all the industrialists also want good roads and infrastructure.

“UK Export Finance provided a loan to a tune of €250m (sh1.1trillion) and Lord Popat, the UK Trade Envoy to Uganda, was very central in arranging that facility for Uganda to develop the KIDP. He was here on a familiarization tour to assess the progress of the park and he is quite comfortable that we will achieve what was agreed upon and the work schedule for this project.

KIBP development now stands at 17%, as opposed to the expected progress of about 28%, and yet the time elapsed is 35%.

“With road designs for the North and South A estates complete, construction commenced on May 1, 2021. However, it has been slow, mainly due to several contractual hurdles that have had to be navigated, hindrances to mobilisation efforts occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all been affected by COVID-19 but if you notice, at the beginning of this month, the Secretary to the Treasury Ramadhan Ggoobi also visited the industrial park together with the contractor. As UIA, the Contractor and Government we will ensure the project gets back on schedule,” Mukiza said.

He noted that the work progress would pick up soon.

The construction works covers an area of approximately 890 hectares (8.9 km2), and the Government of Uganda plans KIDP to become a model industrial park for the rest of the country.

The New Vision has learnt that in some areas of the project UIA and the contractor had been forced to make adjustments in the designs to fit within the available corridor without compromising on the development standards.

Mukiza said that it had now been decided that the work proceeds with the areas where there are no issues as they sought to resolve the problematic areas.

Mukiza explained that UIA and the contractor Lagan-Dott JV had not compromised on the standards at all.

“In Uganda currently we don’t have standards for Industrial Park Roads. What we did was adopt the British standards because the funding was from the UK. The corridors that they did provide for us was 10 meters on each side which is way above the standard which the Ministry of Works had provided for us for development. Those are the corridors that we have gone with,” he said.

Eng. Bamanya explains details of the KIPB Project to the UK trade envoy to Uganda Lord Dollar Popat, UIA Director General Robert Mukiza and the British High Commissioner Kate Airey.

He further noted that in the park they had both the primary and secondary roads and they both have different sizes.

“The Primary roads are the main traffic roads, and those are 20 meters wide, the secondary roads are like the access roads that connect to the different factories, and those are 10 meters wide.”

As an alternative, Mukiza said where there was insufficient spaces UIA and the contractor decided to reconsider without compromising the national standards.

“There is no section where we have gone below the national standard but where we found it was difficult for us to operate within the available space, we decided to reconsider within the national standards although the park is being developed within the UK standards,” he added.

Alex Nuwagira, the Kampala Industrial Business Park Infrastructure Development Project manager, said they had come up with strategies on how to catch up with time.

“Remember this is a 42-month project, and we still have 66% of the time to catch up. Initially, the contractors plan was to operate at one site at a time but he is mobilized on three sections in the park, two sites in the North and one is South A and, in that way, he is moving three times as fast as he would have moved. He is mobilized more in terms of staff and equipment,” Nuwagira stated.

In total, the KIDP was supposed to have 42kms of roads but there was a recent adjustment in the South C estates where new allocations were done following new subdivisions which increased access by 45kms in the park.

Bamanya said the project comprises improvements to the road network, sewage. Water, drainage, fiber optics backbone, solar street lighting, for the entire park, Small and Medium Enterprises workspaces and other amenities such as water hydrants which will all be completed within the 42 months period.

Bamanya said the project comprises improvements to the road network, sewage. Water, drainage, fiber optics backbone, solar street lighting, for the entire park, Small and Medium Enterprises workspaces and other amenities such as water hydrants which will all be completed within the 42 months’ period.

“We are aiming at having sectional handovers of the respective estates so that the respective investors can start to enjoy the fruits of the investment at the earliest time technically possible,” Bamanya said.