Works and Transport Minister Fred Byamukama has directed Stirling Civil Engineering to complete rehabilitation works on the 21-kilometre Northern Bypass within seven days, ruling out any further extension to a project that has already taken three years.
During an inspection of the road project, Byamukama said the government would not approve the contractor's request for additional time, arguing that the Shs67 billion maintenance project had already exceeded its completion schedule at a significant cost to road users and the economy.
"You cannot work on a 21-kilometre road for three years and then come asking for an extension. We are not extending this contract," the minister said.
He instructed the contractor to complete the remaining section under construction within the next seven days and remove all equipment from the site immediately after the works are finished.
Byamukama described the project as "a mess," saying the prolonged construction had caused severe traffic congestion, leading travellers to miss flights, discouraging investors and inconveniencing tourists entering the country through Kampala.
He said the Northern Bypass is one of Uganda's key transport corridors and that the delays had increased fuel consumption, prolonged travel times for motorists and negatively affected the country's image.
The minister also announced that the government has secured funding in the current financial year to construct additional infrastructure that will separate traffic heading towards Masaka Road from vehicles accessing the Entebbe Expressway.
The intervention is expected to reduce persistent congestion at the busy interchange.
Byamukama used the inspection to caution contractors against delaying government projects through repeated requests for contract extensions and inflated price escalation claims.
He said the Ministry of Works and Transport was strengthening supervision of road contracts and would no longer tolerate what he described as collusion between contractors and ministry officials aimed at defrauding the government through unjustified claims.
"Once you are awarded a project, complete it within the agreed time. If it requires working day and night, do it because government is paying for the work," he said.
The minister added that he had summoned contractors to a meeting this week to warn them against corruption and failure to fulfil contractual obligations, saying the government loses billions of shillings every quarter through fraudulent claims linked to road projects.
