By Johannah Nantongo
MPIGI .The Minister of Works and Transport, Fred Byamukama, has asked the contractor for Busega-Mpigi Expressway to pick up the pace and deliver a complete project on time.
This comes after government secured additional financing to resume full scale construction works on the new road, which has been delayed by land acquisition disputes and design changes for more than five years.
Inspecting the 23.7-kilometre project on Wednesday, Byamukama said work had resumed after government mobilised additional funding to complete the expressway.
“Government has since secured additional funding and works have resumed,” he said.
The Busega-Mpigi Expressway, whose construction began in 2020, was initially scheduled for completion by the end of 2026 ,but has suffered repeated delays due to compensation disputes, land acquisition challenges and revisions to the project’s design and scope.
The latest inspection comes just weeks after President Yoweri Museveni suspended three senior Ministry of Works engineers and ordered Permanent Secretary Waiswa Bageya to step aside pending investigations into alleged corruption on the project.
Museveni accused some engineers of diverting the original road alignment through land in which they allegedly had personal interests, resulting in fresh compensation claims and pushing the estimated project cost from about Shs600 billion to Shs1.3 trillion. The Inspectorate of Government is investigating the allegations.
The Ministry of Works has maintained that part of the increase reflects additional financing approved after construction stalled because of funding constraints and design adjustments.
Byamukama said government was determined to overcome the remaining bottlenecks while ensuring the contractor maintains progress toward completing the project.
“While we work towards resolving the project’s bottlenecks, we want to ensure that the contractor maintains steady progress towards the project delivery,” he said.
The minister’s visit also follows a broader policy shift aimed at reducing costly delays on public infrastructure projects.
Last week, Byamukama directed that no contract for roads, bridges or other civil works should be signed unless at least 50% of the required project land has already been acquired, saying the practice of commencing construction before resolving compensation issues had become a major source of delays and escalating costs.
He also instructed ministry officials to respond more quickly and professionally to concerns raised by Project Affected Persons (PAPs), whose compensation disputes have delayed several national infrastructure projects.Land acquisition remains one of the biggest obstacles to infrastructure development in Uganda, affecting flagship projects including the Busega-Mpigi Expressway and sections of the planned Standard Gauge Railway.
The expressway forms part of the Northern Corridor transport network linking Kampala to western Uganda, Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The project comprises a four-lane expressway, more than 20 kilometres of access roads, four interchanges and tolling infrastructure, and is expected to ease congestion along the Kampala-Masaka highway once completed.