NHCC to construct 200 housing units in Tororo

Tororo Municipal Council has partnered with the National Housing and Construction Corporation (NHCC) to construct over 200 housing units on municipal land.

The agreement under public private partnership will be executed on a 5 acre piece of land.

The land was zeroed on by both the council and NHCC officials because of its size and strategic location as compared to the 7 acre piece of land at mile 4 along Tororo-Mbale road currently acting as the council's dumping site.

The proposed partnership will involve the re-development of the land identified by the council into prime mixed used residential/commercial estates to respond to the housing deficit existing in Tororo Municipality, improve the residents' living conditions as well generate income for the council in form of rent, property rates/taxes.

Tororo Municipal Council in return as part of the deal is expected to provide land for this development, provision of infrastructure such as electricity, water, sewerage, and roads to both the site and residents, and provide strong political will to support this development partnership.

The council is also expected to recruit an independent competent consultant, provide additional subsidies on partnership, spear head awareness campaign, guarantee that clientele are paid on time and deductions for repayments are made at source among others.

On the other hand, NHCC is expected to conduct a social and economic feasibility study for the project prior to contractual agreement, provide the project designs, costing, construction technology and skills, build houses, sourcing the appropriate construction technology and marketing and sales of the houses to the public.

They are also expected to commission local contractors to ease mobilization and construction costs, conduct a detailed analysis of the project risks covering technical, commercial and investment risks in addition to political risks and project management and coordination.

Speaking during a meeting with the council officials at the Mayor's Parlour on Monday, David Wanangwe, the NHCC chief operations officer said that they intend to start with 200 housing units on the 5 acre piece of land offered by council in principle.

Wanangwe disclosed that  the construction is likely to start in the next one and half years upon coming up with a master plan, agreeing on the MOU, that will lead to development of a project design, building costs, financing agreements to form the next stage of construction.

Muzamil Akuma, the municipal town clerk described the project as timely and confirmed that as a council, they are blessed to have land of their own to host the project as compared to other districts where all prime land has been sold off.

Akuma said they are already in the final stages to process the documents and very soon, they will come up with the physical action plan of the site under the rock to be forwarded to NHCC.

According to him, they are planning to turn the site into a satellite city of its own by constructing housing units (flats and bungalows), ensure green space for children's park, re-develop the car cable to boost tourism, shopping centres, recreation and residential homes among others.

The town clerk however appealed to the local leaders to always desist from looking at such projects from an angle of how it will directly benefit them, but they should instead view it from the direction of how it's going to spur the local urban economy in the next 20 years in terms of investments, employment opportunities for all.

The Mayor, John Opio, said as the council, they have whole heartedly embraced the project saying once it takes off, it'll be a golden opportunity that will rejuvenate Tororo's tourism potentials.