Uganda has invited bids from private investors to develop and operate a new 95km highway between Kampala and Jinja in the country’s east to ease congestion on the ageing existing road.
The estimated Sh. 100 billion ($1 billion) Uganda expressway is part of the Northern Corridor, a crucial East African transport artery that connects Kenya’s coast to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the tender documents published on Friday, State-run Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) said the private developer will be “expected to design, build, finance, operate … and transfer the project back to government at the conclusion of the operational period.
In recent years the government of President Yoweri Museveni has been pumping huge cash into roads, energy and other infrastructure projects, mostly financed by China, to boost the economy.
The new Uganda expressway will be the second in the banana country. The country’s first expressway, built at a cost of Sh. 50 billion ($500 million), is due to be opened next month between Kampala and Entebbe International Airport.
The 95km toll road, packaged as a public-private partnership, will connect Kampala and Jinja, famous as the source of River Nile.
One section of the motorway will have eight lanes, another six lanes and a third will have four lanes.
The European Union, the French Development Agency and the Africa Development Bank have said they could offer funding for the project in a mix of credit and grants.
