The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCEC), has been given 36 months to complete the 23.7km Busega-Mpigi Expressway.
The revelation was made during the signing of a contract between Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and CCEC on Thursday.
According to UNRA Executive Director Allen Kagina, construction works will be financed by a Shs547b loan from the African Development Bank (ADB) which will be paid within a period of 50 years, but the first decade is a grace period.
““The major objective of the project is to contribute to improving road transportation and trade facilitation along the Northern Corridor and to reduce traffic congestion between Kampala (Busega) and Mpigi,” Kagina added.
Busega-Mpigi Expressway starts in Kyengera and heads south west wards continuing in a parallel alignment south of the Kampala – Kasese railway line for about 1.5km at Maya before turning southwards and continues in this southerly direction.
Wang Lei the General Manager CCEC said, “We will try our best to complete this project in time”.
The four-lane expressway project has encountered several setbacks based on complaints from whistle blowers and mini reviews delaying civil works for over a year.
Last year, a whistle blower petitioned PPDA and the Inspectorate of Government to probe the procurement process and the alleged poor record of some of the companies involved in the task. The subsequent probe uncovered inconsistencies in bid documents of a joint venture submitted by an Italian company Cooperativa Muratori Cementisti & di Ravenna/Advent (CMC and Advent), the contractor preferred by UNRA.
In the investigation report released on November 8, PPDA also indicated that some top executives of CMC had been charged with criminal cases of bribery, project irregularities across Europe and other countries
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