| Work Detail |
A contract has been signed for the recently abandoned project to rehabilitate the Tororo-Gulu meter-gauge railway line. The contract was signed between the government of Uganda and China Road and Bridge Corporation. Al-Hajji Abdallatiff Dhakaba Wangubo, the Chairman of the Board of Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), oversaw the signing.
The Tororo-Gulu stretch rail project, he claims, will go a long way toward promoting economic activity in the region. It will also safeguard roads from excessive truck traffic by saving the company money and other resources by being completed on time.
The 375-kilometer railway line links Mbale, Soroti, and Lira to the Gulu Logistics Hub (GLH). This expands the length of the northern corridor to more than 700 kilometers in total.
The contractor gets an extra month to gather all the required materials, equipment, and work. The Tororo-Gulu stretch rehabilitation is expected to take 24 months to complete.
URC Acting Managing Director David Bulega Musoke asked the contractor to exhibit the same dedication and complete the project on schedule. This was in order to provide the much-needed lift to business in the northern region.
The Tororo-Gulu stretch railway line project funding
According to Wangubo, the government of Uganda fully funds the 199.9 billion shilling project. It is part of its efforts to raise the stock and quality of strategic infrastructure. This is in order to speed up Uganda’s competitiveness and develop integrated transport infrastructure and services all over the country.
The contractor was urged to adhere to the contract’s local content clauses. Having a business and receiving training to enable them to take on other projects or tasks with URC, he claimed, will help Ugandans be more economically independent.
The project might be completed even earlier than the specified schedule. This is according to CRBC’s country manager, Dai Dexin. The country manager pledged that they would beat the deadline.
He claims that this is the result of URC’s strong backing for all of the company’s initiatives. It made it simple for them to complete the work as per the schedule. According to Dai, they would prioritize training the domestic workforce as a means of transferring technology.
The project will include earthworks, utility relocation, drainage improvement, and repair of five steel girder bridges. The supply of new railway line materials, the rehabilitation of old railway track materials, as well as the construction of level crossings that have suitable signage, are additional works.
The government and the European Union (EU) jointly funded the work to be completed by the European firm Sogea Santon in 2020. However, the contract was terminated last year due to financing issues on the part of the government. |
