Uganda Railways Corporation URC- says that the new locomotives will start operation next week following the successful re-construction of the triangular section.
Stanley Sendegeya, the Managing Director of URC, says that all is well and the locomotives are good to go.
He says that they have already completed the construction and rehabilitation of the triangular sections in Kampala, Jinja and in Tororo district.
Recently, URC procured four locomotives at Shilling 48 billion. However, there concerns that the new locomotives are not compatible with the available rails in the country.
It followed concern that the eight-year-old locomotives were long and couldn’t turn on the available triangular sections of the rail among other challenges.
Geoffrey Obara, the Engineer with URC says that although the operators of the new locomotives are still undergoing training, instructors among others will help to run the train as the operators get used to it.
“We are set for next week, the locomotive successfully run on Friday and we hope that from next week we can start the transportation of goods,” he said.
Early this week, URC told members on the Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprise that they had initially planned to procure six-year-old locomotives at Shillings 36 billion Shillings but they ended up procuring four eight-year-old locomotives at Shillings 48 billion.
The Chief Engineer, Julius Musimenta reportedly took the decision in disregard to recommendations by a team of experts within URC.
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It is great development.