The Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure on Wednesday visited the Isimba Hydropower Project to investigate the Engineering, Design and Construction of the Isimba Public Access Bridge connecting the districts of Kayunga and Kamuli.
Overall physical progress of the bridge is currently at 35%. The committee was led by Hon. George Nsamba Kumama where they inspected the project which consists of a 3.5Km access road and 2.1Km approach road to the public bridge.
The works are supervised by Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and expected date of completion is 31st December, 2020.
Works at Isimba started after a Tripartite MOU between MEMD, UNRA and UEGCL was signed on the 8th of July 2019. This gave UNRA the responsibility to Supervise the works of the 3.5 Km access road and Bridge at Isimba.
The project has been dogged by allegations of corruption that have allegedly culminated in the project stalling.
Last year, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga alleged that she had been following the matter since March 2019 and now feared that the funds (Shs24bn) had been swindled.
“By the way, at some stage Shs 24 billion had been chewed. I have been following up this matter and the money was eaten in the Ministry of Energy,” said Kadaga.
The Speaker said she had even furnished President Yoweri Museveni with names of individuals suspected to have swindled the monies.
“I even gave the President names of the eaters, I have been waiting for action since March but I have not seen it,” said Kadaga.
Commissioned on March 21, 2019, the 183MW Isimba hydropower project is located 4km downstream of Simba falls on the R.Nile, approximately 50km downstream of the source of the Nile. The project steering committee chairperson, Eng Badru Kiggundu, says China Water and Electrical Company Ltd was expected to construct a bridge across R.Nile that would link Kayunga and Kamuli districts.
