Engineers inspecting the Mpigi-Kanoni road currently under construction.

Delays in resident compensation by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) have stifled progress to the completion of the Mpigi- Kanoni road.

This according to Milivoje Millisavijevic, the managing director ENERGO Uganda has affected the work progress on the 64km road that stretches through Seeta, Kabasanda-Gombe. ENERGO is the company that was awarded the contract for the construction of the road at a cost of 123 billion Uganda shillings.

“We have to depend on UNRA clearing the way by compensating the residents that are along the way in order for us to move smoothly. In addition without the consultants providing the designs we can do anything more than that,” Millisavijevic said.

He further revealed that the designs by the consultant AE Com from South Africa for the road have also not been completed. Among the visible sections that have been skipped is Mpigi Town roundabout and Kibibi trading center.

Millisavijevic was on Thursday 14, 2016, reacting to a question by a journalist on why some sections of the road had not been completed. He however said he was confident the work would be completed on time once these obstacles were eliminated.

However, when contacted, an official from UNRA who preferred not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media confirmed the delays in compensation to residents due to an ‘avoidable circumstances’, he said.
When asked to comment on the recent findings of a UNRA report that mentioned ENERGO as among the companies that were accused of inflating road construction prices, Millisavijevic refuted the claims.

In a the report that was delivered to President Museveni earlier this year, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire who was chair of the probe team also pinned some former officials of  UNRA of conniving with companies that construct roads to do substandard work.

The report also pointed out that the cost of construction of roads in the country virtually doubles that of neighbors like Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia who build similar roads.

“While embarking on the construction works we consider so many factors. The costs of materials, taxes of a country etc. We therefore ensure that we work within the perimeters where a client is left satisfied and so are we. We are a very reputable company having started operations in 1951 and are working in over 70 countries worldwide. We therefore have a name to protect,” Millisavijevic said.

Rodol Jub Radojevic, ENERGO’s project engineer revealed that the company has embarked on using modern technology to construct durable roads.

He said a state of the art machinery to crush stones has been procured to ensure the surface of the road is well laid before construction.

The 2 year project that started late last year is expected to be completed by next year.

The company has carried out previous road works in Uganda among them upgrading and gravelling of the Kampala –Jinja road, works on Entebbe road and the Kawempe-Kafu road among others.