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| View of Murchison Bay |
Occasionally I have the chance to witness
the slow moving cogs being oiled and set in motion as decisions are made that
will affect the population five, ten, fifty years down the line and the passion
starts to rise. Although the majority of
politics can be a bit of a snooze-fest, the development of infrastructure in
anywhere in the World ignites my interest.
Therefore I’ve put together a list of up and coming projects that are in
the pipeline of the decision makers of Uganda.
Projects that are planned for construction in the next twenty years to
bring the country in line with its neighbours and other rapidly developing
countries all for you to digest and maybe also get excited about. The list is made up of projects currently in
construction, those on the drawing board and other possible schemes that the
writer thinks are important for Uganda in helping realise its dreams;
Kampala – Entebbe Expressway; this
much needed route between the capital city and the only international airport
in the country is currently under construction.
Work started in early 2013 and is expected to last four years. At a cost of $476 million this will form one
of the early Ugandan Public Private Partnership projects (in the wake of the
Bujagali dam PPP project in Jinja) and will be run as a toll road earning the
private sector revenue to offset the construction cost, before being handed
over to the government to enhance their road-building coffers.
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| Approximate locations for the Expressway, Southern Bypass & Ngaali Bridge Schemes |
Karuma Falls Dam; set in the
backdrop of one of the largest National Parks in Uganda and on a stretch of the
River Nile, this slightly controversial project is expected to generate a much
needed 600MW of power for Uganda. Due to
its central location at one of only two current crossings of the Nile in the
Pearl of Africa it is ideally located to send power to the under-developed
North whilst also serving Kampala with even more important clean and natural
power. Now of course all hydro-electric
schemes have their critics but the benefits for this particular scheme could be
argued to outweigh the negatives on a stretch of river that is currently not
used for tourism or local fisherman, but will hopefully bring them all benefits
whilst also hopefully help open up the North to development and closer ties to
the seat of government through greater inclusion. The cost of the project is estimated at a
total cost of $2 billion (including associated infrastructure) and my one hope
is that the designers of the dam include a river crossing in their plans to
allow for a decent highway into the North.
Lunatic Express Upgrade; the metre gauge rail line between the Kenyan border and Pakwach to the North and
Kampala/Kasase to the West is not too far from celebrating its centenary. Built in the early twentieth century as an
extension to the route from Mombasa, it has run its course and is rarely used
anymore to carry passengers and freight.
With just 5-10% of all freight travelling from Mombasa to Kampala by
rail an upgrade is drastically needed and is well timed to coincide with
Kenya’s own upgrade project which broke ground in November 2013. The upgrade to the once dubbed Lunatic
Express within Uganda to a Standard Gauge modern railway has been split into
two manageable chunks, which in order of development are the 250km Malaba-Kampala
section and 500km Tororo-Pakwach section with spurs to Nimule near the South
Sudanese border. At the time of writing
preliminary design work was on-going for both sections of the upgrade with work
scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2018 at a joint Kenya-Uganda cost
estimate of $13 Billion that will bring increased freight and possibly
passenger services to the historic line allowing people to travel the 1,500km
from Mombasa to the Congolese border at Goli in a fraction of the time it currently
takes.
Kampala Flyover Project; the wheels
are in motion on a more Kampala centred project that aims to reduce the journey
times between the Clock Tower near the Entebbe Road and the Africana Hotel
roundabout on Jinja road to just 5 minutes.
The Japanese International Cooperation Agency, who is currently heavily
involved in the new Nile crossing at Jinja, has issued the final report of the
preliminary design for improving the Kampala CBD congestion. Alongside junction upgrades and new traffic
management signals the proposal includes the creation of flyovers across
certain sections of the current road network.
In line with KCCA transport infrastructure plans the scheme will cost
somewhere in the region of $70 Million with construction starting in 2016 and
taking two full years to complete.
Southern Kampala Bypass; starting at
the end of the Easterly spur of the new Entebbe-Kampala Expressway at Munyonyo,
the proposed Kampala Southern Bypass will complete the orbital beltway around
the Greater Kampala Metropolitan area.
Although the exact route for the 18km bypass is yet to be determined, a
large focus will be on minimising resettlement costs by potentially using
existing highways. One thing is certain
though is that the bypass will go some way to freeing up the currently clogged
arteries of South-Eastern Kampala and allow rapid movement between Jinja Road
to the North and Entebbe to the South.
The estimated cost of the link road is approximately $250 Million.
Kampala – Jinja Expressway; plans
are afoot to find the best method of improving this section of the Trans
African Highway that has reached the end of its useful lifespan. Unfortunately in hindsight maybe, the
original Jinja Road was built through a portion of the very important Mabira
Primary Forest. Which means it is
impossible from a conservational point of view, to expand the current road and
therefore a new section has to be created to divert around the Southern edge of
the forest. At an estimated at $800
Million this new multi-lane highway will transport goods and people between the
two important hubs in record time whilst hopefully allowing what remains of Mabira
to rejuvenate to its former glory…unless the sugar companies have their
way. Work on the Kampala to Jinja
Expressway is set to begin in 2015.
Murchison Bay Bridge; with the
Southern Bypass set to be constructed along the shores from Munyonyo and the
Kampala-Jinja Expressway heading south under the lovely Mabira Forest there
seems to be a link that hasn't been considered; a connection to open up a new
era of greater Kampala on the other side of Murchison Bay. Okay, to be honest this is one of my concepts
dreamt up one Friday evening with some fellow Engineers, but in order to truly
become a 21st Century city Kampala needs a signature structure. And what better way to achieve this than a
with signature bridge connecting ‘Old’ Kampala to a new highly organised and
well planned future city on the Eastern shores of Murchison Bay. “The Ngaali Bridge” will launch itself from
the end of Ggaba Road beside the National Water compound and soar gracefully
across the kilometre of water coming to rest on the opposite side of the bay
with views of Port Bell to the North and Lake Victoria to the South. At its western end it will be connected to
the Southern Bypass, while in the East it will have a direct link to the
Kampala-Jinja Expressway and upgraded Railway line, truly putting Kampala on
the map.
Bukasa Port; with Port Bell up to
capacity and future trade with Tanzania via Lake Victoria set to boom it has
been suggested that a new port will be needed.
With its links to the growing satellite industrial area of Namanve outside
Kampala and the future roads and rails schemes already mentioned Bukasa has
been flagged as the key location. An
area of 500 hectares has been earmarked for development at an estimated cost of
$180 million. Once again critics of the
project include local stakeholders who argue of their lack of involvement in
the project whilst those in favour argue it is necessary to improve the lake
trade and will benefit all Ugandans.
Personally I think the location within the already congested and
polluted Murchison Bay is incorrect and should be pushed further along the
coast away from the Greater Kampala area allowing for a regeneration of the Bay
for the benefit of the inhabitants of the capital.
Kampala City Airport; in October 2013 the
Uganda CAA showed its hand in their wish to construct a second international
airport close to the city. With the
number of road, rail and shipping projects already covered in this article,
their early consideration of a 300 hectare plot in the Namanve area makes a lot
of sense. The airport would supplement
the existing Entebbe airport which itself is in the early stages of an
expansion and is expected to cost between $100-150 Million for its first
stages. I suspect the airport will start
its days as more of an East African hub in the same way London City airport
supplements Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK as a Euro-centric airport in the
heart of the capital. However over time
it may grow to help share the international load with Entebbe as airlines
compete for better flight times. A new
airport will certainly be a very useful string to Uganda’s growing aviation
industry and can only help in its vision in becoming an important and integral
part of the East African community. Now
all we need are cheaper Intra-African flight prices to make the option of
flying more affordable.
