Uganda plans a public–private partnership (PPP) tender next year, worth up to $1-billion, for a new road linking its capital to Jinja, an industrial hub in its east, a spokesman for the roads agency said on Thursday.
The government also plans to tender a major refinery project as a PPP.
Dan Alinange, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) spokesperson, said World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) had been hired as the road project’s transaction advisor for the tender.
“Early next year the project will be advertised. It’s a massive project because we’re looking to raise between $800-million to $1-billion,” he said.
The six-lane, 77-km road is expected to be Uganda’s second toll road after another stretch under construction linking Kampala to Entebbe, the sole international airport in Uganda.
China’s EximBank is partly funding the 51-km airport expressway, expected to cost $470-million.
Alinange said the PPP project will help vastly speed up the flow of cargo and other motor traffic on the Ugandan section of the Northern Corridor — East Africa’s primary trade route for both imports and exports.
“There’s enormous appetite for this sort of project and that gave us confidence to structure Jinja-Kampala as a PPP,” he said.
By: Reuters
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/uganda-plans-1bn-public-private-partnership-road-tender-in-2015-2014-10-16
