CONSTRUCTION OF METRAC CENTRE BEGINS IN UGANDA

The government has launched the construction of a Mechanical Engineering Training and Advisory Centre to boost the level of training for machine operators.

The Works and Transport minister, Gen Katumba Wamala, said the Shs8.8 billion Mechanical Engineering Training and Advisory Centre (METRAC), the first of its kind in the country, is in line with the strategic objectives under the National Development Plan III that targets to develop an Integrated Transport Infrastructure and services.

“The government realized that the biggest bottleneck in the use and care of the road equipment was the unskilled operators yet no deliberate effort had been made to train the manpower to operate the road equipment. We have lost machines as a result of the unskilled operators,” he said during the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction works of METRAC on a 10-acre land procured at Kakinzi Village in Luweero District on Wednesday.

The project is championed by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) under a Public- Private development partnership between the government of Uganda, the government of Japan and Komatsu Limited as the private sector technical partner.

It is expected to be complete by December 2023 and targets an increase in skilled machine operators for both the public and private sectors, according to Gen Katumba.

“The operator training centre will in one way address the youth unemployment problem, but also ensure that the road machinery gets a long lifespan as planned. My appeal is to the leaders to prepare our youth to enrol for the training once the construction works are through. With an increased budget for the roads to Shs1 billion per district local government in the next budget, we expect to have better roads,” the minister told local leaders in Luweero District.

Japanese Ambassador to Uganda Fukuzawa Hidemoto reveals that the construction works for METRAC will boost to the Uganda Road Infrastructure.

“In 2015, the government of Uganda purchased road equipment worth $155m (about 584.7b) from Japanese companies to boost road infrastructure maintenance. This was a clear step that the government was committed to having better roads. We are very sure METRAC will become the next milestone in Uganda-Japan relations,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Mr Waiswa Bageya, said: “The trained operators were not enough. We agreed that the perennial machinery breakdown can only be addressed by a deliberate plan for the Mechanical Engineering Training Centre to improve the quality of pieces of training for the best-skilled operators.”