UPC delighted with cancellation of shs2.2bn SGR contract

By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,

NATIONAL
Uganda People’s Congress has welcomed president Museveni call ordering the cancellation of contract for the Chinese company to build the Standard Guage Railway.

¶The move by Government to shift from the Chinese company to Turkish company to embark on the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is very much welcome,¶ says UPC

Last week, media reported that the government terminated the Shs2.2bn contract with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to build the first phase of the SGR after eight years of non-execution of the project.

The 273km line from Malaba to Kampala was expected to cost $2.2 billion, but the Chinese financiers did not fund the project after casting doubt on Kenya’s SGR reaching the border to link with Uganda’s and making the project viable.

According to the SGR Project Coordinator Eng Perez Wamburu, government has now signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi to takeover the project. The company which is building Tanzania SGR is expected to tap into its network to bring Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) on board that will finance and breathe life into the moribund project. Insiders say the company will submit a response to the government’s request for a construction proposal within the next few weeks.

UPC spokesperson Sharon Arach Oyat said at a media briefing on Tuesday that termination of the Chinese company contract is long overdue and called for transparency with the new contractor.

¶This is coming at a time when our economy is struggling to recover from covid – 19 consequences and therefore calls for total commitment and mobilisation of resources,¶ she said.

She says the revival of Uganda Railways Corporation is on the horizon and will stimulate both internal and external trade, decongeste road network as well as enhancing regional integration.

UPC which boasts of the railway project as being their former government’s policy to link Uganda to the regional markets and ease transport of people, goods and service warns that government should ensure the project does not become as most of the facilities that have gone to waste due to negligence.