East African Business Week

Kampala, Uganda--Land-locked Uganda is in dire need of road, railway and pipeline infrastructure to meet the challenges of bulk transportation.
Having such infrastructure would reduce the cost of doing business as Uganda moves towards commercial oil production. Currently, the road network leading to the oil wells mainly consists of low grade murram, which will not sustain the movement of heavy trucks
Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), a body established to oversee the national road sector, has designed plans for upgrading the roads from gravel to bitumen.   
"We have finished the design of the roads and even tendered it.  Subject to the availability of money, we are ready to go," says UNRA Executive Director, Mr Peter Ssebanakitta.
Mr Ssebanakitta says the contract has been tendered to COMPTRAN, a Nigerian firm.  
The roads to be upgraded from gravel to bitumen, include the 92 km road from Hoima to Kaiso and Tonya area, where the oil refinery will be located.
Ssebanakitta says the authority is also designing the road from Hoima to Wanseko landing site on Lake Abert.  He said works will commence within the next financial years.  
It is estimated that the road construction will cost US1m per kilometer due to the difficult terrain in the area.
Tullow Uganda Operations Corporate Affairs Manager, Jimmy Kiberu, says the first commercial oil production is expected to start in late 2012.
Kiberu says Tullow will be transporting bulk equipment to the oil wells by air and road.
"We shall be moving millions tonnes of equipment annually, and we shall not  bring it on boda bodas or on foot" says Kiberu
"In the absence of a pipeline and refinery then you will be moving so many trucks on the roads. The current road network will not be able to sustain the project".
Plans to set up a regional airport to transport some of the materials are also underway.
Uganda has a comprehensive road network, currently comprising of National Roads (20,000kms), District Roads (13,000kms) Urban Roads (2,800kms) and Community Roads (about 30,000kms).
The roads serve to interconnect communities and districts and link land locked Uganda to neighboring countries.
Infrastructure, especially power and roads, remains a key challenge for East Africa's third largest economy.