In two years, Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) plans to establish 23 fully equipped road maintenance units countrywide.
Allen Kagina, the Unra executive director, said recently as she flagged off 40 new tipper trucks to different stations, that the authority will fully equip 23 stations with road maintenance equipment in two years. She said however, that budget constraints stand in the way of her dream.
Allan Ssempebwa, Unra’s media relations manager, said in a telephone interview with The Observer last week, that, “We have had budget constrains towards road maintenance because we get our funds from the Uganda Road Fund, which is actually shared by local governments and municipal councils therefore our share is still very low. There are efforts to have it raised by Unra to at least 30 per cent to see that we have a moderate road network,” Ssempebwa said.
The government allocated Shs 419 billion to the Uganda Roads Fund this financial year. A fully equipped Unra road maintenance station must have a grader, roller, water bowser, an excavator, and a tipper truck. The 40 new tipper trucks flagged off by Kagina cost about Shs 1.6 bn. Another 68 have already been bought.
“The purchase of these trucks will help us respond faster in terms of road maintenance. If we can respond faster, there will be ability to do more work and on top of this, the costs of road maintenance will go down,” Kagina said as she flagged off the tipper trucks at Mpigi Unra station on February 8 2017.
She however, warned private individuals, local council authorities and politicians against intimidating station staff in order to acquire tipper trucks for personal use.
“These are for the Unra network. Districts have their own. I do not cater for them. And we have instructed our station managers not to hire them out to individuals for private works. Some people ask for them to work on their farms. We have however, considered cases of emergencies like landslides and earthquakes where these machines may be needed. A request must be made in writing,” Kagina said.
She said Unra is equipping its road maintenance stations largely to give newly recruited staff tools to work better. On September 29 2015, Kagina sacked 890 workers in a major overhaul shortly after she assumed office. The number of Unra staff has since expanded to 1,026 with more recruitment still on-going.
Unra is mandated to maintain unpaved roads on their network to keep them accessible by motorists.
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