The government of Uganda led by President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned the 104 kilometers Musita-Lumino-Busia-Majanji road, linking the eastern side of the country to the neighboring republic of Kenya, following the completion of its renovation.
The renovation project included the upgrade of the road from unsealed gravel surface to class II bitumen surface. The project was carried out by China Railway 18th Bureau Group Company, Limited (CR18), a subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation from 2015 until 2017, and again by China Railway Group Limited from then to its completion.
Musita-Lumino-Busia-Majanji road
The Musita-Lumino-Busia-Majanji road starts at Musita, a small town on the Jinja–Iganga road, approximately 25 kilometers east of Jinja, and continues in an easterly direction, through Mayuge, Namayingo, and Lumino. At Lumino, a southern spur, measuring about 10 kilometers goes south to Majanji on the northern shores of Lake Victoria while the main road makes a northerly turn to end at the border town of Busia which is the international border with Kenya.
The project was been executed at an amount of US $55m raised by the government from equity. In addition to helping to strengthen trade between the two East African countries, the newly upgraded two-way two-lane road will reduce the travel time from Busia to Jinja – the main city in the Eastern region of Uganda – from 5 hours to 2 hours. According to Katumba Wamala, the minister of Works and Transport in Uganda, this will alleviate the problem of transporting goods in the East.
Wamala, encouraged people to “take full advantage of such government interventions to improve their household income, which will in turn support government’s social-economic transformation programs.”
