High Altitude center to cost sh17.5bn

By Norman Katende

THE Construction of the National High Altitude Centre in Teryet, Kapchorwa will cost over $7m (Over sh17.5bn), New Vision Sport has learnt.

The preliminary costs have been drawn from individual architectural drawings by Infrastructure Design Forum in conjunction with Thailand based Yang Ma designers. The drawings were completed over the weekend.

During the steering committee meeting held last Friday, chairman Yusuf Nsubuga, a director for basic and secondary education in the ministry, hinted that the project had earlier been estimated at about $6.5m.

However, the costs later increased after different additional structures to the project were considered that include a VIP stand, more lanes in both the swimming pool and tartan track among others.

According to reliable sources from the ministry, the costs will be submitted to the procurement department for approval before being declared officially.

The Procurement department will approve the final costs

“The right costs will come out at a time when all the buildings to be constructed in the first phase have been approved by the relevant bodies. We do not need to have so many contradicting figures,” commissioner for sports Omara Apitta said.

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The figures could even go higher if recommendations from the locals in Kapchorwa are considered.

Among their requests was the need to have a fully-fledged stadium at the site for local activities.

Already, sh1.2b has been injected into the project to facilitate preliminary works of constructing better roads, setting up water and power lines at the site.

The project, expected to be the best in the East and Central Africa region is expected to have a number of facilities including an artificial and natural grass pitch for both football and rugby, dressing rooms and pavilions, a health centre for physio, fitness, massage and Sauna.

An indoor facility for different games that include netball, volleyball, badminton among others will also be set up. A hotel, a 25-metre swimming pool, hostel and offices to cater for both Ugandans and other international teams that would like to use the facility to prepare for competitions will be constructed as well.