The Kiira Motors vehicle plant is nearing completion with 75% of the construction work complete. The plant, which sits on 100 acres of land in the Jinja Industrial and Business Park includes the assembly building floor, warehouse area, site circulation roads, water and power reticulations, parking areas, perimeter fence and gate facilities.
The construction contractor National Enterprise (NEC) said during the site visit over the weekend that they will be able to meet the deadline, which is slated for June 2021.
Maj. Arthur Kyoffa, the head of electrical works at NEC says the general structural progress is now at 75% and is confident that by June 2021, they will have met the client’s expectations.
“At this point, most of the super structural work is almost done. We are now mainly looking at the internal and external finishing to the building. We are sure that the plant is going to be ready by June and we are going to deliver to the expectations of our client,” Maj. Kyoffa said.
Upon completion, the plant will be the new home of building buses in Uganda. Allan Muhumuza, the Director Marketing and Sales at Kiira Motors says the plant will have the capacity to build about 22 cars per day and about 5000 cars per annum.
Lydia Nakanda Mugoya, the clerk of works at the site, says they had a few setbacks in the beginning of the project but amidst them, they were able to embark on the work.
“In 2019, our biggest challenge was the weather. It rained almost every day which slowed us down. In 2020, we were also affected by the COVID-19 lockdown which resulted into delayed some activities. The lockdown also interrupted the importation of some construction materials but we are positive that we shall meet the client’s deadline,” she said.
Kiira Motors Corporation is a government owned initiative aimed at creating the automotive industry in the country. The country has so far built three production ready buses with two of them fully electric for city mass transit and an internal combustion one for long distance travel.
