SBC presents proposal for new airport near Uganda Oilfields

SBC – a joint venture between UK company Colas and local company SBI Uganda – has formally presented its proposal for the Kabaale International Airport project to the Ministry of Works and Transport which is expected to offer immediate benefits in facilitating the movement of materials and manpower for the development of the oil sector in Hoima District, and the Western Uganda region in general.

The SBC team submitted its proposal to the Ugandan Minister for Works and Transport, Hon. Monica Azuba Ntege, in the presence of Uganda’s Attorney General, William Byaruhanga and the British Deputy High Commissioner Mary Shockledge.

At the event, Deputy High Commissioner Mary Shockledge stressed the importance the UK government attaches to supporting UK companies operating in developing markets such as Uganda.

Following its submission of the proposal, SBC gave a brief presentation. Other than the immediate benefits to the oil sector in Hoima District, in the longer term it is expected there will be wider benefits for the development of tourism and agriculture in the region.

The Hoima International Airport Development project is expected to cost $250 Million[+/- 30%].

At the event, Deputy High Commissioner Mary Shockledge stressed the importance the UK government attaches to supporting UK companies operating in developing markets such as Uganda. She thanked the Government of Uganda for its work to date on the development of the project. She also commended Colas UK as a reputable UK firm that has delivered similar projects on time and on budget, meeting high environmental and social safeguarding standards.

Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority’s plan to construct a 3,100 meter runway has been commended which investors said will enable an Antonov cargo plane can land on with over 30,000 tonnes of equipment expected to be ferried for the construction of the refinery as well as thousands of tonnes of construction materials and consumables.Of this 5 percent of the cargo is expected to arrive by air, 15 percent by rail and 80 percent by road.

Already 29 square kilometres of land is being set aside for the construction of Uganda’s Refinery Project, an airport and an industrial park in Buseruka Sub County, Hoima District.

The government has said a master plan for the development of the petrochemical industrial park in Hoima, Uganda is expected to be completed by February 2017. The park which will include a refinery, a crude oil export hub, an international Airport, logistics systems, utilities, and other petrochemical industries will also have an integrated infrastructure corridor which will accommodate a pipeline, a highway, Power Transmission and ICT infrastructure cable systems is being planned, from the industrial park at Kabaale in Hoima to Kampala.