URN.The project worth Shillings 18.06 billion was funded by a loan from the African Development Bank-ADB. The three-storeyed market was according to the contract agreement meant to be handed over by November 2019.
After almost four years of construction, Multiplex Aslhamas Constructions Limited is yet to deliver the modern Masaka Central market. In February 2018, the Ministry of Local government hired Multiplex Aslhamas Constructions Limited to redevelop the Masaka Central market under the second phase of the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Program-MATIP II.
The project worth Shillings 18.06 billion was funded by a loan from the African Development Bank-ADB. The three-storeyed market was according to the contract agreement meant to be handed over by November 2019.
However, to date, the contractor is still on-site even after getting three extensions for four months each granted by the Ministry of Local government. Frank Mwebaze, the Chairperson of Masaka Central Market Vendors Association, says that they are highly frustrated by the chronic delays in the handover of the project for use.
He says that close to 2,000 vendors who previously occupied the old Masaka market structure, which was demolished to pave way for the construction have waited for too long and are now fed up operating under makeshift structures that are susceptible to both sunshine and rains.
He warns that the vendors may be prompted to occupy the incomplete market in its current state. He calls upon the Ministry of Local government to consider hiring another contractor to undertake the remaining works in the shortest time possible.
In spite of vendors’ frustration, Richard Kyobe, the Project Manager at Multiplex Aslhamas Constructions Limited, says that they are seeking another extension of the project time to enable them to complete the market. He attributes the delays to unforeseen circumstances that included COVID-19 transport restrictions, abrupt changes in the project designs, and delays in delivery of construction materials, which all affected their progress.
Kyobe has appealed to the vendors to stay a little more patient to allow the contractor to deliver the required quality of work, adding that they expect to complete the market in the next three months.
According to Kyobe, the project now stands at nearly 93 percent completion rate, saying that this will be the last extension they will be asking for. Engineer Emmanuel Mwebaze, the Commissioner of Infrastructure Development at the Ministry of Local Government, says they equally share the vendors’ frustration over the long delays by the contractor.
He however indicated that they have tasked the contractors to formally explain the causes of his inadequacies in the project before another extension is granted. At the moment, the market structure has been roofed and the contractor is now working on electromechanical fittings, before moving to link into utility service lines and construction toilets and the parking yard.
