Nankabirwa said the contractor is rectifying defects, especially the cabling discovered by independent evaluators deployed by President Yoweri Museveni. The supervising consultant has since been replaced and the contractor was compelled to fix all identified defects and gaps on the multi-million dollar power plant -which will be the biggest in Uganda. Sino Hydro Corporation Ltd, a Chinese company, is constructing the power plant.
“I have come here to see the defects we have been reading about. The work is huge. Initially, the contractor bundled all the cables together. Staff houses were supposed to be ready before construction of the dam started, but they are not yet ready,” Nankabirwa told journalists at the project site.
Eng. Irene Bateebe, the new permanent secretary at the ministry of Energy, blamed the first owner’s engineer (consulting government engineer) for failing to investigate, verify and certify the work done.
“At the inception of the project, the owner’s engineer did not do a good job. We got a better company that investigated the defects and we are now confident we shall commission this project in June 2022,” she said.
Albert Byaruhanga, the project manager, said the defects being fixed include; mechanical installations, electrical cables, and general cabling. He said some cables did not meet contract specifications and international standards.
The contractor is now installing new quality cables with the required specifications on a project that will boost power supply in Uganda especially the West Nile region. Nankabirwa instructed the contractor to bring in more engineers to ensure the commissioning of the Karuma Power Plant next year is not delayed any further.
“We must deliver this dam to the Ugandan people as promised and with all defects rectified. We must energize all the transmission lines that have been erected,” Nankabirwa said.
The minister last week inspected government-funded energy projects in Acholi and West Nile sub-regions. Nankabirwa said government is committed to have the Karuma project up and running in June next year together with the evacuation transmission lines connecting to Lira substation, Olwiyo substation, Arua substation and Kawanda substation.
“The Olwiyo substation has been developed with capacity to accommodate planned developments at Ayago, Oryang and Kiba. The substation will also be connected to Gulu and Elegu substation, then to South Sudan. It will serve the West Nile region, through transmission lines to Pakwach, Arua, Paidha and the rest of the region,” Nankabirwa told residents at Purongo primary school in Nwoya district and Arua area MPs and district leaders in Arua city.
Nankabirwa said when Karuma is added onto the national grid, there will be stabilization of power supply to the northern region and socio–economic transformation realized.
“The government of Uganda is fully aware of the potential in the region, including tourism, agriculture and cross-border trade, which can only be harnessed with stable and adequate power supply,” she said.