World Bank issues fresh objection towards Tororo, Kamdini road

By; Ben Musanje

05^th Nov. 2020

The World Bank has issued fresh objections towards the commencement of construction and rehabilitation of the road from Tororo District to Kamdini in Oyam District.

According to the Minister of state for works Gen. Katumba Wamala the World Bank is still not satisfied with the social safeguards in place and a few days ago declined to approve any commencement of works.

The safeguards which have held up the project since 2018 revolve around the compensation saga of households affected by the use of a quarry by the approved contractor Mota-Engil in Katine, Soroti District.

The road rehabilitation project financed partly by the World Bank is set to cost Shillings 331.6bn. The road works are part of Shillings 897bn North Eastern Road Corridor Asset Management Project (NERAMP)

However, according to the minister, despite several explanations by the government that the households at the quarry were compensated the World Bank has still declined to release funds for the construction.

Gen. Katumba Wamala has told parliament that a few households decided to petition the Global lender claiming they wanted a review of the compensation process leading to the latest impasse with the World Bank; the minister was meeting MPs on the Committee on Physical Infrastructure.

The matter concerning the stalled project works was raised by the MP for Koboko County Samuel Okwir who said the state of the road from Lira to Kamdini was deplorable leading to traffic delays and accidents.

Okwir says the contract was signed in 2018 but disappeared from site with no clear information from the Uganda National Roads Authority.

Gen Wamala told MPs that despite providing a no objection the World Bank halted the project again a few days ago due to the complaint by some of the affected households, he says that the government is now involved in back and forth correspondences to get the project started.

However Okwir says there is a need for immediate intervention to save lives as government of Uganda had also committed funds to the project.