BY BOY FIDEL LEON
State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite has today inspected the progress of £214m Infrastructure development project at Namanve industrial park that is expected to foster the development of 500 factories and create over 250,000 jobs at its completion.
Speaking during the inspection on the progress of the Lagan DOTT Namanve Limited, Ms Anite expressed her impression and also her disappointment with the rate at which the project is being constructed.
“I am quite impressed because I saw when they were trying from when the place was really swampy and now to make it’s having a tarmacked that we can stand on,” she said.
“But I am also not so much impressed because we are a bit lagged behind because of natural disasters like Covid. What drives chills in my nerves is the fact that we are left with one year to complete the project and we are not there. We are 60% behind.” She added.
In 2019, the government secured €249m (Shs1 trillion) loan from UK Export Finance to develop key enabling infrastructure, which includes roads, drainage systems, and fiber optics in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park.
This came on the foothills of complaints from investors in the industrial parks on the transport systems and the general infrastructural development.
The Infrastructure development project at Namanve industrial park which is a design and build project, commenced on 17th June 2020.
Ms Anite during the tour said that the project is behind schedule and they therefore have to work day and night to ensure that within that one year, the project is completed.
“…you all do remember that we had other financers, we had World Bank that had wanted to finance this project, and they pulled out, that is why it is not news to us when the World Bank pulls out, they have done that before. So they pulled out of this project,” she said.
With the rising concerns about the ecosystem, concerning Namanve industrial park that has once been a swamp, Anite reassured the public that they have found a way of coexisting with nature.
Also, the authorized representative Of Lagan DOTT affirmed the statement and assured us that we shall not have any challenges with the environment.
“We have taken all that it takes to understand the water flow, I am very confident that we will not have challenges with the environment,” said the representative Of Lagan DOTT. “ we shall have some green spaces within the park to allow the ecosystem to be completed, ” he added.
