Government has tabled two loan requests totaling Shillings 1.42 trillion to finance the rehabilitation of Kampala city roads among other things.
David Bahati, the Minister of State for Planning today tabled the loan requests before Parliament.
These include a proposal to borrow US Dollars 99.8 million, approximately Shillings 378.25 billion which is additional funding from the International Development Association (IDA) to finance the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP).
The other is a proposal to borrow US Dollars 219.40 million approximately Shillings 831.56 billion from the African Development Bank (ADB) and US Dollars 55.60 million, approximately 210.73 billion from the African Development Fund to finance the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP).
Both loan requests presented were sent for scrutiny to the Parliament’s Committee on National Economy by Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.
According to the project appraisal report on the African Development Bank Group website, the Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project (KCRRP) is part of a citywide infrastructural improvement program that seeks to meet government’s long-term development strategy as outlined in the Vision 2040.
The Vision aims to increase and improve the quality of infrastructure stock to foster transformation of Uganda’s economy from low income to a more competitive upper middle- income status.
The project is aimed at tackling congestion in the city of Kampala through improvement of road network, upgrading of traffic junctions and enhanced drainage capacity to mitigate flooding on the streets.
The project entails the improvement of 62 kilometres (km) of roads, 123km of non-motorized traffic facilities, provision of street lighting, provision of scheduled eco-bus services with supporting infrastructure (bus depot and dedicated lanes).
The project is estimated to cost US Dollars 288 million to be financed by the African Development Bank Group (ADB: 77.8% and ADF: 17.7%), Global Environmental Fund, GEF (0.7%) and Government of Uganda contribution (3.8%). The implementation period is 5 years from 2020 to 2024.
The appraisal report indicates that because of the eventual experience of improved transport efficiency of the project, it will at least 1.6 million people including commuters, businesses and transporters passing through the city regularly.
The News Editor ,Reporter at Kagadi Kibaale community Radio
