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The work was initially supposed to be undertaken as part of the Bakuli-Nakulabye-Kasubi Road reconstruction implemented under the Kampala Institutional Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP II). But it was halted due to the presence of a roadside market in the area.
Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA has now relocated the vendors to the newly constructed Kasubi market barely a kilometre away from the junction to pave way for the roadworks. So far, the contractor Energo Projekt Uganda Limited has finished grading the area and laid the sub-base layer which is a mixture of murram and rocks. The junction will be constructed to have traffic lights.
Yona Ssevvule, a transporter who has been operating in the junction for close to 30 years is optimistic that the road expansion and reconstruction will ease traffic congestion along the road, which connects to the burial sites of the Kings of Buganda, commonly known as Amasiro ga ba Sekabaka links to the northern bypass and is also the main link to the busy centres in Nansana.
Fred Lukyamuzi, who sells groceries at the junction hopes that the construction will make the road safer for them especially with the installation of traffic lights, and aid the business in the area to boom. Lukyamuzi says that there have been a number of accidents experienced at the junction as motorists and pedestrians struggle to use the narrow road.
Hamid Kamus, a resident who runs a butchery at the junction says the poor road had always emitted dust into foodstuffs making them unattractive for buyers. “People don’t like buying meat from butcheries on dusty roads because they know that dust from the road ends up in the shops and eventually on the meat,” said Kamus before adding that the construction brings a sigh of relief to them and their customers.
The Coordinator of the KIIDP II Project Eng. Stephen Kibuuka says that according to the contract agreement, the contractor is expected to have completed works by September 11, 2021.
He however notes that the contractor has hinted at the progress having being affected by the lockdown and indicated that the project might be delayed. KCCA and Energo Projekt are yet to establish the impact of the lockdown and the new completion date.
