By Macdonald Adrabo and Sabir Musa

Arua

Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has confirmed that maintenance works on Arua-Lia-Odramacaku road will start next week as government plans to tarmac it in the next Financial Year 2024/2025.

The road that connects Arua town and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is commonly used by traders and is currently in poor state.

A restaurant operator in Kirab Cell, Arua Central Division, Sumaya Sanga explain that, the dust from this road directly affects her business. “This dust is too much; it enters direct inside the restaurant. We always have to cover things because it is not safe for us and it affects our customers as well. Government needs to tarmac the road for us,” she appealed.

A chapatti seller along this road, Abdul Aziz equally voiced his concern over poor state of the road and calls for quick intervention of government. “This road has too much dust and it affects us, especially on the food items sold here. So we appeal that government works on the road” he appealed.

However, Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) Media Manager, Allan Kyobe confirms that maintenance work on the road will start next week. “Our maintenance team intends to move in to do work on the twelve (12) kilometers road which is marked into three sections because the entire road is not in poor condition as such.

We are using this week to mobilize our equipment from different stations and we may swing into next week to begin maintenance works on that road” the Media Manager revealed.

Several roads in West Nile, including Koboko-Yumbe-Moyo road and Arua-Terego-Yumbe road are in poor state, contributing to increased rate of road accidents in the region.

COVER PHOTO: A section of Arua-Lia-Odramacaku road in the current state By Macdonald Adrabo and Sabir Musa