The Uganda Railways Corporation has started a staff capacity building exercise to prepare its employees for high-end service delivery once operations are fully resumed across the country. 

According to the executive director, Stanley Sendegeya, full scale, efficient service is expected in the Mukono- Namanve - Kampala, Nalukolongo – Kampala- Portbell, and Kampala - Malaba routes, once the rehabilitation works on the railway, wagons and the coaches is complete. 

“It doesn’t make sense to pump millions of dollars in the rehabilitation project, yet the people who are going to handle these same facilities have not been empowered to do so,” he said, on the sidelines of the inaugural capacity building workshop, at the Silver Springs Hotel in Bugolobi, earlier Monday (May 16). 

He said all employees from senior management to the lowest will undergo a capacity building training, because of the high-end services to be offered as soon as the rehabilitation of the track and training of staff is completed. 

“We want them to not only know and understand our mission and vision but move together with us as we offer enhanced services to all our customers, for God and our country,” he said. 

Presently, URC has contracted a Chinese firm to undertake the rehabilitation from Kampala to Malaba, and another Spanish firm to do the Mukono-Kampala, and Nalukolongo-Portbell routes at an estimated $360m. 

Already, works on the Kampala-Malaba route are ongoing and completion is expected at the end of this year. 

The line will connect to Kenya’s seaport of Mombasa, via an ICD in Naivasha, where the standard gauge railway currently terminates and links to the century-old meter gauge. 

Sendegeya said the work which includes the replacement of rails and sleepers on the permanent way, which have been vandalized over the years kicked off in January and is expected to conclude in less than a year. 

In May, the government sought approval from the tenth Parliament, to borrow up to €327m (sh1.346trillion) to fund the refurbishment of the 215km Kampala-Malaba meter-gauge railway project. 

The money, according to former Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga was to be borrowed from the African Development Fund (€216.71m) the African Development Bank (€84.4m) and the Corporate Internationalisation Fund of Spain.