Works and Transport Minister Monica Azuba Ntege, has disregarded all allegations that government abandoned the construction of the $8 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
The project will be linking Uganda to the rest of East African member states of Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda and South Sudan. The Minister said design review was done and sourcing finance is in its advanced level.
“Government is not abandoning the project, Tororo-Gulu Metre Gauge Railway will also be developed along with the SGR and will run together complementing each other. We shall have the SGR to concentrate on bulk traffic, Metre Gauge Railway will be transporting to and from short areas,” she said.
She said the process of land acquisition is ongoing for a 60 meter wide corridor is being acquired and said a total of 3,083 persons affected by the project out of 10,207 assessed, have been compensated translating into 101km out of 273km and 1,002.8 Acres out of 2,994.519 Acres to be paid for.
“Land has been bought and won’t be encroached on specifically to reach the deadlines for having completed construction of the SGR in line with the agreement with the Government of Kenya,” she noted at media centre.
Of all the east African member states, significant progress has been made with Kenya having successfully completed the Mombasa-Nairobi line and embarked on the Nairobi-Naivasha section which is now at 50 percent completion.
In Rwanda, preliminary engineering design of the new SGR line from Kampala to Kigali was completed in January 2018 while in South Sudan, preparation for a bankable feasibility study for the Nimule-Juba SGR line is on-going and is expected to be complete by December this year.