KAMPALA: The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) on Monday launched an online procurement process for construction of the Kampala-Jinja expressway.
The Ministry of Works Permanent Secretary, Waiswa Bageya, said the online procurement platform will safeguard the integrity of the process and eliminate corruption, reduce risk exposure related to the complex, high-value tenders and reduce internal process costs.
He added that the online platform shall enable issuance of all relevant reference documents, management of the question-and-answer sessions and all clarifications from bidders. It will also enable submission of bids by all bidders and evaluation of the bids by UNRA.
Bageya also said the Parliament has already approved $400m to finance the project. The successful contractors, who will win the bid, will be required to look for an outstanding balance of $600m.
“The project is under public-private partnership,” Bageya revealed, adding, “The contractor should be able to solicit for private capital to invest in the project.”
Just like Entebbe highway, anyone using the Kampala-Jinja expressway will pay a motorway toll yet to be set by the Transport and Works minister
The Kampala-Jinja expressway comprises the following components: Section 1: The Kampala Southern Bypass (31km); Section 2: Kampala to Namagunga (35km) and Section 3: Namagunga – Jinja (42km).
UNRA has since identified at least four bidders who submitted the pre-qualification application for the project. These include China Communication Construction Company Ltd, KJ connect, Strabag, and Enkula expressway consortium. The Head of Designs at UNRA, Patrick Muleme, said that by next December, a bidder will be selected to kick-start the construction work. Besides submitting a design to UNRA, the successful candidate will be expected to secure the funds to start the project in 2023.