By Drake Nyamugabwa
Market vendors who have been affected by the widening of the Kampala-Hoima road will be relocated to the new market which will be located about one kilometer away from the old one.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Acting Executive Director, Eng Andrew Kitaka released the roadmap for the construction of the market yesterday while leading a team of KCCA officials to the proposed market site.
Compensation of land owners where the new market will be located is already complete and ground work of the market has been completed.
During inspection of the market at Kasubi, Kitaka said that the market is expected to accommodate over 1,500 vendors, adding that the construction of the new market stalls will commence on 1st April 2019.
“Construction of Kasubi market is due to start in April. The market will create a safe working space for hundreds of vendors who have been operating on the roadside for nearly three decades and reduce congestion in the areas of Nakulabye and Kasubi,” he said.
Kitaka said the relocation will also pave way for the completion of Kasubi junction, which was supposed to be upgraded during the expansion of Bakuli-Nakulabye-Kasubi road last year.
The stretch of the road was upgraded under the World Bank funded Second Kampala Institutional Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP2) and launched in June last year but the junctions could not be constructed because KCCA had not relocated the vendors.
Kitaka said that tenders for the market construction are now being evaluated. The construction is estimated to cost Shs3bn.
He appealed to vendors to be cooperative and patient as actual work begins, adding that the market will be constructed in a shade style instead of high rise structures which vendors in different parts of the city have shunned.
“It seems vendors like shades. We don’t want to put up high structures and end up with something unoccupied. We shall put there good shades with steel structures,” he said.
Rubaga Mayor, Joyce Ssebugwawo said that they are happy with the work which has been done and are hopeful that construction will be completed by end of this year.
Ronald Zibu, the chairperson of Kasubi market said vendors are also happy with the work. However, they requested KCCA to purchase more land for the market to construct feeder roads to access the market.
