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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has commenced the construction of an access road to the new Busega market in Rubaga Division.
The contractors, China State Construction Engineering Cooperation Limited started minor works at the end of March but have since progressed to laying gravel.
The road forms part of the 70km funded under the 288m dollar (approximately one trillion shillings) acquired from the African Development Bank (ADB).
According to Henry Bukenya, the Manager of Commercial Services at KCCA, the construction is expected to last at least six months.
Busega Market was constructed under the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme (MATIP) with support from the Arab Bank of Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). It was completed in 2022 but could not be commissioned due to the lack of an access road.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja visited the market in August 2022 ahead of the official opening and ordered the road first be reconstructed and fix the defects on the new market such as the poor painting and leaking of the upper floor before it opened. The contractors, Arab contractors were given two months to rectify the gaps.
Two months later in October, with constructors operating behind schedule, KCCA law enforcement officers and police demolished close to 30 temporary structures erected along the access road. But still, construction did not kick off.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Local Government handed over the market to KCCA.
Bukenya says that KCCA planned to construct the road to ease access to the market and hopes that vendors shall occupy it as soon as construction is completed.
There are other access routes yet to be constructed but Bukenya says this shall be done in the due course. He says that they shall soon conclude the registration of vendors who will occupy space in the market.
Busega Market is planned to accommodate 2,000 vendors who operate in the old Busega Market located a few meters away along the road. It has shops, stalls, open spaces, toilets, and a parking lot in addition to ramps for easy access by People with Disabilities (PWDs).
It is one of the nine markets the Ministry of Local Government earmarked nine years ago for development under the MATIP project with support from the Arab Bank of Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).
The construction started in 2010 and the cost was 6.8m dollars (approximately 23.8 billion shillings) with BADEA financing the first phase of the construction works at 5.42m dollars (19 billion shillings) while the Government of Uganda bankrolled the second.
Other markets under this project, some of which are completed and operational are; Wandegeya, Nyendo Market (Masaka District), Mpanga in Fort Portal, Hoima Central Market in Hoima Town, Lira Market, Gulu Central Market, and Jinja Central Market, among others.
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