Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have intensified supervision of key cross-border road projects aimed at improving trade and movement between the two countries.
A delegation from the Ministry of Works and Transport, led by Ambassador Farid Kaliisa, this week began inspecting progress on the regional road projects linking Kasindi, Beni and Butembo in eastern DRC.
According to a statement from the ministry, the delegation started the inspection at the Mpondwe/Kasindi border and later held discussions with the governor of North Kivu Province, Evariste Somo Kakule.
The ministry said the visit aims to follow up on the progress of construction works and address challenges affecting implementation of the project.
“A delegation from the Ministry of Works and Transport from Uganda, led by Ambassador Farid Kaliisa, this week commenced the supervision and a tete-a-tete follow up on physical civil works progress of the phased regional road project between the two neighbouring countries,” the statement reads.
Uganda and the DRC are both members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which encourages joint development and regional cooperation. The ministry said the two countries agreed to jointly build and upgrade key roads linking their territories to improve trade, strengthen security and ease movement of people.
“The two states agreed to jointly construct and upgrade major roads connecting the two countries in order to ease business, improve people to people connectivity, improve security, and increase trade and investment between them and in the region generally,” the statement adds.
The current works focus on two priority corridors. These are the Mpondwe/Kasindi–Beni–Butembo road covering 133 kilometres and the Bunagana–Rutshuru–Goma road covering 89 kilometres.
The Mpondwe/Kasindi–Beni section stretches for about 80 kilometres in North Kivu Province. It begins at the Uganda–DRC border and connects to Uganda’s Kikorongo–Bwera–Mpondwe road.
Uganda has already funded construction of the Mpondwe/Kasindi bridge, which the ministry says is now “substantially complete”.
From Beni town, the road links to the Beni–Komanda–Kisangani corridor where contractors have already carried out major earthworks and identified asphalt sources.
Another key section is the 54-kilometre Beni–Butembo road. It starts in Beni town and ends in Butembo, a major commercial centre in North Kivu with a busy market and airport.
The project uses a phased design-and-build approach. It will first upgrade 223 kilometres of road to all-weather gravel standard before final improvements to bituminous standard.
Officials from Uganda and the DRC are now holding technical meetings to assess progress and identify challenges affecting the project.
The ministry said the discussions are taking place at the Commonwealth Convention Centre in Munyonyo, Kampala.
