By Sabir Musa

Arua
The Ministry of Works and Transport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a private investor, East of Eden, to upgrade Arua Airfield to an international standard, following an approval by the Solicitor General.

The investor is expected to conduct a feasibility study to, among others, ascertain the traffic which will help in designing and generating budget for the development to start.

Arua Airfield Manager, Pamela Licoru, explains that this project will give an opportunity to develop other components like the terminal. “Automatically our statistics (traffic) will go up. When the traffic doubles or increases, it means other infrastructures will come-in like new terminal building as the one we currently have has reached its capacity (of people) it can accommodate,” she says.

This project will be implemented in a form of Public-Private-Partnership under build, operate and transfer model in which the investors will develop, use and later give to government.

Citing the experience in housing projects within Uganda and Africa, the Chairperson of East of Eden, Sandra Zawade made commitment to deliver quality work. “Our expression of interest in participating in this project was as a result of the very strong linkages between the two. Now that we signed MoU, definitely we are going to engage in feasibility study as the project is a priority in the third National Development Plan (NDP)” Sandra said.

However, Arua City Land Board Chairperson, Benard Atiku is hopeful that the project implementation will be smooth as government is at the final stages of compensating the affected persons in plans to expand the airfield.

“For now the land available is over 400 acres and part of it has been acquired already especially on the eastern side of the airport though we have about four families which are yet to be compensated but the discussion is going on between government and the families. We also expect Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Works and Transport to acquire range of 100 meters on the western side, this acquisition is going to help in-terms of putting a new runway” Bernard said.

The investor plans to have feasibility study done and works commence within this year.

COVER PHOTO: Minister of Works and Transport, Gen. Katumba Wamala (R) exchanging copies of MoU with East of Eden Chairperson, Sandra Zawade recently. Photo by Ministry of Works and Transport.